Offenbach - Des contes d'Hoffmann (Some Tales of Hoffmann) / Nagano, Galvez-Vallejo, Dessay, Lyon Opera

Jacques Offenbach's last opera (his only grand opera) is specially vulnerable to such tensions because he died before finishing it. Musically, some of the opera's best-loved moments (notably the bass aria "Scintille, diamant") were cobbled together (using melodic material from other Offenbach works) after Offenbach's death. This production, the first video recording based on the new, critical performing score prepared by musicologist Michael Kaye, omits those beloved, spurious numbers. They are missed, but it's hard to complain about the omission of inauthentic material. In any case, conductor Kent Nagano has assembled a superb cast that does the music full vocal justice--most notably Natalie Dessay, Gabriel Bacquier, and Jose Van Dam.

While Nagano works hard to respect Offenbach's intentions, stage director Louis Erlo runs roughshod over them, so much so that at Kaye's suggestion the production's title was changed from The Tales of Hoffmann to Some Tales of Hoffmann. Offenbach's original treatment takes place in four European cities where Hoffmann fights the same implacable enemy through one doomed love affair after another. In this production, the locale shrinks to one location--a symbol-infested mental hospital. This fits the feverish, surreal atmosphere of E.T.A. Hoffmann's stories and Offenbach's imaginative musical treatment, but many patrons have found the staging offensive--as is their right. I find it often stimulating, but I would not want it to be the only Hoffmann on my shelf. --Joe McLellan

Description
The highlight of the inaugural week of Jean Nouval's new opera house in Lyon was the premiere of "Tales of Hoffmann." Inspired by Offenbach's "Les Contes d'Hoffmann" and freely based on the performing edition by leading American musicologist Michael Kaye, this production is far removed from its familiar settings. Hoffmann--poet, musician and philosopher--finds himself trapped in some kind of infernal huis clos, surrounded by mutant incarnations of the men and women who have been instrumental in his moral and creative decline. Insanity, drunkenness or nightmare? Daniel Galvez-Vallejo, a young French tenor of Spanish descent, makes a striking impression in the title role. The four villains are portrayed by the peerless Belgian bass-baritone Jose van Dam, and the legendary Gabriel Bacquier plays Spalanzani, Crespel and Schlemil with veteran aplomb.

and the result is that classical music is in its death throes.
where are the current composers?
oh, we have knussen, salonen, saaarhio making small dents, but that is all.
it was less than a mere hundred years ago that debussy, ravel, stravinsky, milhuad, bartok, shoenberg, berg, and webern caught our attention.
but, that is past.
no one today can make that type of impact and the fault lies at the very feet of the medium's 'fans'.
in film and theatre we have seen new retellings of hamlet, midsummers nights dream and etc, but even that group's conservative adherents pale in comparison to the plethora of conservatives in classical music.
numerous complaints spring up every time a leonard bernstein or pierre boulez type interpets a piece in a subjective light, although even karajan,despite what is claimed, was a subjectivist.
today it seems only the incresingly dull levine is 'acceptable'.
mahler, kubelik, and klmeperer all attached themselves to new music and all met obstacles in the toscanini corrupted states.
and the recording industry is replete with play it safe thinkers as well.
do we need another beethoven cycle?
even boulez is now recording much recorded music.
peter sellars and group did some innovative films of the mozart duponte operas years ago. those have long been out of circulation and its doubtful that they will be seeing the light of day any time soon.
barenboim and kupfer did a superb, abstract parsifal and ring cycle that have inexplicably vanished.
barenboim and chereau did a (by all accounts) startling wozzeck that has never made its way to the states.
yet we can find any levine la boheme or magic flute on dvd, vhs, laser disc, etc in any tower records.
and still, the sales, even on levines output is miniscule.
mainly because theyre dull, flat, and unimaginative.
if the recording industry and 'fans' could find it within themsleves to take a chance on new music and new interpetations on the old chestnuts, then perhaps the death of artmusic would not be so imminent.
but, from the reactions i have seen on amazon towards innovative interpetations (like this one), i am not optimistic.


Interesting but it's not Offenbach   January 4, 2004
 2 out of 5 found this review helpful

If you think that you are getting Offenbach's opera, think again. This modernistic production which seems to be set in a madhouse bears only the faintest relationship to Les Contes D'Hoffman. (Hence the title Des Contes.) If I didn't hear the music I would think I was watching a staging of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari or Marat/Sade. It remined me of a production of Rienzi I saw where everyone was clad in camoflauge? Where were the visuals to go with the grand music? And where in this version of Offenbach is the charm, the beauty, and the humor that goes with this music? Is it really doing composers a service to mask their intentions and create incongruous crap in the name of invention and eschew convention? I felt as one who sits down to dine on Beef Wellington on fine china and is served hamburger on paper plates.