Jacques Offenbach
Libretto by Jules Barbier after the play by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré

Opéra fantastique in five acts
The protagonist of the opera is E.T.A. Hoffmann, the prototype of the German romantic period artist: his life is an artwork, his lower depths, his doubts, his grand inspirations – his crises. And all of these are connected with: women. Hoffmann in the opera tells of three types of woman in his tales, the “lifeless doll with a heart of ice”, the “virtuoso”, ill and destined to die, as well as the “shameless courtesan”.

Jacques Offenbach’s opera fantastique, premièred in 1881, is based on the play of the same name by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, who drew from the biographies and works of E.T.A. Hoffmann, Adelbert von Chamisso and Alfred de Musset to create their own artist’s drama. It is not a literature opera – the protagonists from different romantic tales are connected to one another by a fictitious Hoffmann – but rather more of a message to the writer, telling him to make art his matter of the heart, or perhaps even open up his heart with brutal frankness.

Based on the edition by Michael Kaye and Jean-Christophe Keck, © Schott Music International

In French with German surtitles

Coproduction with the English National Opera London

Cast

Conductor Emmanuel Villaume
Production Richard Jones
Set Giles Cadle
Costumes Buki Shiff
Choreography Lucy Burge
Lighting Mimi Jordan Sherin
Dramaturgy Rainer Karlitschek
Chor Sören Eckhoff

Olympia Kathleen Kim
Antonia Genia Kühmeier
Giulietta Dinara Alieva
Cochenille / Pitichinaccio / Frantz Kevin Conners
Lindorf / Coppélius / Dapertutto / Miracle John Relyea
Nicklausse/Muse Tara Erraught
Stimme aus dem Grab Heike Grötzinger
Hoffmann Giuseppe Filianoti
Spalanzani Ulrich Reß
Nathanael Dean Power
Hermann Tim Kuypers
Schlémil Christian Rieger
Wilhelm Joshua Stewart
Crespel / Luther Christoph Stephinger

The Bavarian State Orchestra
The Chorus of the Bavarian State Opera