Opera

Les Contes d’Hoffmann / Tales of Hoffmann

Jacques Offenbach

Jacques Offenbach’s opéra fantastique »The Tales of Hoffmann« from 1881 is based on stories by the Romantic author E. T. A. Hoffmann, who also appears in the opera as a lovesick poet (and who functions as the narrator). In this sophisticated mashup of reality and imagination, he encounters his own literary figures: the mechanical doll Olympia, the artist Antonia and the courtesan Giulietta, none of whom prove to be the long-desired ideal lover.

Employing a richly suggestive visual language, director Johannes Erath examines the fate of a man who longingly stretches out his hand for love, but who pulls back when it threatens to become real.

Fantastic opera in five acts
Libretto by Jules Barbier after the play by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, version by Michael Kaye and Jean-Christophe Keck

Performed in French with German and English supertitles

Premiere
4. December 2016,

No further performances in the current season.

Premiere cast

Sächsischer Staatsopernchor Dresden
 Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden

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Tales of Hoffmann

Jacques Offenbach’s opéra fantastique The Tales of Hoffmann from 1881 is based on stories by the Romantic author E. T. A. Hoffmann, who also appears in the opera as a lovesick poet (and who functions as the narrator). In this sophisticated mashup of reality and imagination, he encounters his own literary figures: the mechanical doll Olympia, the artist Antonia and the courtesan Giulietta, none of whom prove to be the long-desired ideal lover. Employing a richly suggestive visual language, director Johannes Erath examines the fate of a man who longingly stretches out his hand for love, but who pulls back when it threatens to become real.
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