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

Casts

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

Olympia Rachele Gilmore   
Antonia Eri Nakamura   
Giulietta Brenda Rae   
Cochenille / Pitichinaccio / Frantz Kevin Conners   
Lindorf / Coppélius / Dapertutto / Miracle Laurent Naouri   
Nicklausse/Muse Kate Lindsey   
Stimme aus dem Grab Heike Grötzinger   
Hoffmann Joseph Calleja   
Spalanzani Ulrich Reß   
Nathanael Dean Power   
Hermann Andrea Borghini   
Schlémil Christian Rieger   
Wilhelm Joshua Stewart   
Crespel / Luther Kristian Paul   

Bayerisches Staatsorchester
The Chorus of Bayerische Staatsoper