Les Contes d’Hoffmann

Opéra fantastique in three acts with a prologue and an epilogue
Libretto: Jules Barbier, Michel Carré after E.T.A. Hoffmann’s short stories
World premiere: 10 February 1881, Opera-Comique, Paris
Premiere: 4 June 2027
Co-production with Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Berlin

In original French with English and Polish surtitles

Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann was one of the most original representatives of early 19th-century German Romanticism, operating on the fringes of the mainstream movement. In 1881, the writer became the main protagonist of Jacques Offenbach’s opera. Rather than attempting his biography, the librettists, Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, transported the writer into the world of his short stories. 

Their Hoffmann is an adventure seeker confessing to his past ill-fated love conquests. The subsequent acts take the audience across Europe as they witness the poet's romances with the mechanical doll Olympia, the singer Antonia, and the courtesan Giulietta. In each case, Hoffmann's road to happiness is hindered by a black character and the poet is saved by his friend, Nicklausse. Will the world-weary artist eventually find long-awaited love in the arms of the prima donna Stella, who seems perfect for him? 

Associated mostly with the world of operetta, of which he was an unquestioned master, Offenbach sought recognition as a composer of ‘serious’ operas. The Tales of Hoffmann is his final and most successful attempt to prove that he could deliver more than just light entertainment. His ‘opéra fantastique' skillfully combines tragedy and farce, German romanticism and French irony, as befits a German-born naturalised French citizen with the Order of the Legion of Honour pinned to his lapel.

Lydia Steier, a stage director whose productions have been shown by the most important European theatres, is fascinated by the world of Hoffmann and Offenbach. She treats her audience to an absurdist, comic-strip story deeply rooted in American culture, whose every character represents one personality trait of the burnt-out artist: quest for perfection, commitment to art, and pursuit of sensual pleasures. This production, devised together with the Berlin Staatsoper, is a portal to a world of vibrant colours, where romanticism blends with surrealism, and seriousness meets grotesque.

Chorus and Orchestra of the Polish National Opera