A fantastic opera in a prologue, three acts and an epilogue, Jacques Offenbach's Les contes d'Hoffmann was performed on 10 February 1881 at the Opéra- Comique in Paris. The author had been dead for a few months and had not been able to complete the score on which he had worked on and off over the years. After a long tug-of-war between Opéra-Comique director Léon Carvalho and librettist Jules Barbier, the task of completing the work was entrusted to Ernest Guiraud, a friend of the late composer. Offenbach had composed a copious amount of music for the Contes without, however, managing to find a definitive version. The variability of content is reflected in the layout of the work, which is full of time jumps, interruptions and digressions in pure Hoffmann style. E.T.A. Hoffmann, an apex figure of German Romanticism, is the protagonist of the story set in various European cities in the early 19th century. While the Prologue and Epilogue take place in Nuremberg in Master Luther's tavern, where Hoffmann begins to recount his love affairs, the intermediate acts take place in Paris, Munich and Venice respectively, and feature female figures at the centre: Olympia, Antonia and Juliet, the women loved by the writer. A complex and layered work, steeped in bizarre situations, diabolical spells and visions, Les contes d'Hoffmann restores to the listener a variety of musical atmospheres full of enchantment.

Marvic Monréal

Events

Upcoming events

Dec 20, 2026 - Jan 2, 2027

Les contes d'Hoffmann · Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino

Future and recently performed repertoire

La Muse/Nicklausse in Les contes d'Hoffmann by Offenbach

Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino

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