One of the most talked-about productions in Seattle Opera history returns to McCaw Hall for a glorious season finale. An endlessly inventive poet regales his drinking buddies with stories of romancing three fantastic women. A trio of colorful villains foils our hero at every turn. Three fabulous shows in one, Offenbach’s sumptuous collage of whimsy, creativity, heartbreak, and artistic salvation enchants and delights with luminous music and compelling theater. Not to be missed.
In French with English subtitles | at McCaw Hall
Approximate Running Time: 3 hours, 30 minutes, with 2 intermissions
Audio described performance for visually impaired patrons available on Sunday, May 4. Description begins 10 minutes prior to the beginning of the matinee.
Performance Dates
Sat, May 3, 2014 7:30 PM
Sun, May 4, 2014 2:00 PM
Thu, May 8, 2014 7:30 PM
Sat, May 10, 2014 7:30 PM
Wed, May 14, 2014 7:30 PM
Fri, May 16, 2014 7:30 PM
Sat, May 17, 2014 7:30 PM
Synopsis
Long Story Short
Eccentric writer tells the stories of his three great failed romances while screwing up the fourth. But at least he has his art.
Who’s Who?
Five characters appear in each tale:
Hoffmann
is the great German writer who, in this opera, likes to sing in French.
Nicklausse is a teenage boy who follows Hoffmann everywhere. The mezzo-soprano who plays him also plays the Muse, the goddess of art and Hoffmann’s guardian angel.
The Enemy, also known as Councilor Lindorf, Coppélius, Dr. Miracle, and Dappertutto, is a shape-shifting demon with frightening magical powers, always out to destroy Hoffmann.
The Woman also takes on various forms; she is Olympia, a pretty doll; Antonia, a sickly young woman of great talent and promise; Giulietta, a high-class courtesan; and Stella, a star performer with a voice of gold.
The Servant always has some defect: he is Andrès, an imbecile; Cochenille, a broken robot; Franz, who cannot hear; and Pitichinaccio, who is deformed.
The Other Characters Include:
Nathanaël and Hermann, students and friends of Hoffmann and Nicklausse.
Spalanzani, a mad scientist interested in creating artificial intelligence.
Councilor Crespel, Antonia’s father, a violin-maker.
The Portrait of Antonia’s Dead Mother, which can come to life and sing.
Peter Schlemil, Giulietta’s most recent lover.
When?
E. T. A. Hoffmann was born in 1776 and died in 1822. The action presumably occurs when he’s a young man, at the beginning of the nineteenth century.
What’s Going On?
PROLOGUE. The great writer, Hoffmann, stumbles into a bar for a drink during an intermission of Don Giovanni, which is playing nearby in a production starring La Stella, the current mistress of his heart. His friends, a rowdy gang of students, encourage him to entertain them with the stories of his previous love affairs. The three acts of the opera thus take place as flashbacks…
OLYMPIA. When Hoffmann was a young man, he toyed with the idea of giving up poetry and becoming a scientist. Accordingly, he apprenticed himself to Spalanzani, a famous inventor who had recently finished creating a very life-like robotic doll. Spalanzani introduced the doll to Hoffmann as his daughter, Olympia; and Hoffmann, seeing the doll through rose-tinted glasses sold to him by Spalanzani’s business associate Coppélius, fell in love with her. At Olympia’s debutante ball, Hoffmann amused all of Spalanzani’s guests by failing to notice that he had fallen in love with a robot.
Meanwhile, Coppélius, who had manufactured Olympia’s eyes, discovered that Spalanzani had cheated him. The inventor paid his supplier with a check from the banking house of Elias, and when Coppélius discovered that Elias had gone bankrupt, he crashed the party and ripped Olympia into pieces. Hoffmann was devastated to find that a) his beloved was dead, b) she was never alive, and c) everyone was laughing at him.
ANTONIA. Some years later, Hoffmann was found romancing Antonia, a girl from a musical family: her father, Crespel, was a violin-maker and her mother a great soprano who died of a strange disease that made singing lethal for her. Crespel kept Antonia healthy by locking her away in his middle-class house, away from admirers like the poet Hoffmann, who might encourage her to sing, and away from the wicked Dr. Miracle, the quack whose tinctures and potions only hastened his wife’s untimely demise. But Hoffmann and Miracle found their way to Antonia nevertheless. When Hoffmann finally understood Antonia’s predicament, he offered to marry her and set up an orderly household, like that of her father. But Miracle told Antonia she would be a fool to deny the world her beautiful voice, to silence herself for the sake of bourgeois respectability. The portrait of Antonia’s dead mother came to life and implored her daughter to sing. The girl did, and it killed her. Her wretched father made a stab at Hoffmann, whom he blamed for his daughter’s death; but Hoffmann’s teenage amanuensis Nicklausse saved his life, and the devastated poet escaped.
GIULIETTA. Some time later, Hoffmann and Nicklausse turned up in Venice, gambling and whoring in that infamous cesspool of vice. Hoffmann fell for a beautiful courtesan named Giulietta, who was in the business of selling her favors in exchange for men’s souls. She had just handed over the shadow of Peter Schlemil to Dapertutto, who kept her well-supplied with the jewelry she so craved. Dapertutto encouraged her to go after Hoffmann next. She made Hoffmann think she was falling in love with him and begged him to give her his reflection as a memento of him. No sooner had he agreed than Hoffmann found he couldn’t see himself if he looked in a mirror. Hoffmann killed Schlemil in a duel, to get him out of the way, only to watch Giulietta run off with another admirer, the deformed midget Pitichinaccio. Hoffmann managed to escape with Nicklausse, but Dapertutto kept his soul.
EPILOGUE. Hoffmann has been telling stories through the entire second act of Stella’s performance, and when she comes by the tavern, she finds him a bitter, self-pitying, drunken mess. She leaves on the arm of Councilor Lindorf, who bears an uncanny resemblance, in voice and appearance, to Coppélius, Miracle, and Dapertutto. But still faithful to Hoffmann is Nicklausse, who turns out to be the Muse of Poetry. Women may fail Hoffmann, but art will never desert him.
Artists
- Hoffmann
- William Burden
Russell Thomas *
- The Villains
- Nicolas Cavallier
Alfred Walker *
- The Muse/Nicklausse
- Kate Lindsey
- The Heroines
- Norah Amsellem
Leah Partridge †*
- Crespel
- Andrea Silvestrelli
- The Henchmen
- Keith Jameson †
- Spalanszani
- Steven Cole
- Antonia’s Mother
- Tichina Vaughn
- Conductor
- Yves Abel
- Stage Director
- Chris Alexander
- Set Designer
- Robert A. Dahlstrom
- Costume Designer
- Marie Theresa Cramer
- Lighting Designer
- Robert Wierzel
- Sets & Costumes
- Seattle Opera
† Seattle Opera debut
* On May 4 and 16 only
Russell Thomas is a former Seattle Opera Young Artist
This opera by Jules Massenet is set in ancient Egypt, where the seduction comes in the form of a beautiful courtesan named Thaïs. A monk makes it his mission to redeem her, but becomes obsessed with her erotic allure. Redemption or lust – what proves stronger?
►In the war-torn 16th century, peace between France and Spain is secured when a French princess, Elisabeth de Valois, is given in marriage to Spain’s King Philip. The King’s son, Carlo, is shattered, for he is in love with her. When Carlo dares to defend the Flemish people from Philip’s persecution, he incites both his father’s fury and the awesome authority of the Grand Inquisitor. Believing that he has been doubly betrayed, Philip arrests Carlo and Elisabeth. In the dramatic final scene at the tomb of Charles V, a ghostly friar rescues Carlo from the wrath of Church and State.
ANDREA CARE
Kathryn Lewek, The Queen of the Night
Anna Siminska, The Queen of the Night
Eri Nakamura, Pamina
Maureen McKay, Pamina
Joseph Kaiser, Tamino
Paul Appleby, Tamino 
Joshua Hopkins, Papageno
Kostas Smoriginas, Papageno
Soloman Howard, Sarastro 
Jordan Bisch, Sarastro
Philippe Auguin, conductor 
Harry Silverstein, director
Paul Pyant, lighting designer
Jun Kaneko, set & costume designer
Opera, My Love Magazine 