Hoffman Ballet of Technicolor Doom

....And now, ladies and gentlemen, a story of misadventure, daring, and ultimate despair, a story of operatic floppery like no other!

A few years ago, I was sick with a cold and channel-surfing when I caught an interesting piece on the Turner Classic Films channel: what looked like an opera dubbed over a ballet! I had never seen, heard, or heard of this opera before and did not recognize it. It involved a young gentleman, his friend (a lady in a trouser role), a puppeteer, his assistant, and his rival, and lots and lots of marionettes and dolls, including one in a yellow dress who sang a very charming aria and whom the young gentleman obviously mistook for a real girl. I checked the channel listings to find the title of the film: "The Tales of Hoffman."

In 1953, this film version of  Jacques Offenbach's "Les Contes D'Hoffman" (See previous entry "Tales of a Drunk, Depressed Fantasy Author" for plot details) was made in England. It starred a whole score of world-famous dancers and opera singers. It was the inspiration behind other directors' careers, it was a sensation, it was-- well, I'll tell you.

This film was my first introduction to "Hoffman." I absolutely fell in love with the Doll Song after seeing that clip of the film on telly. So, just a few months ago, I ordered the DVD from Netflix, just to see what the whole thing was like. For the most part, it was pretty interesting. It has several superfluous ballets inserted and several major numbers removed. For instance, the overture is a pan-over of the rooftops of Hoffman's town, but the opening "Glou, glou, glou!" is set to a "Dragonfly Ballet" with Moira Shearer (supposed to be Stella performing) and Edmond Audran. No Muse, no monologue, no spirits of wine and beer, just the dancers, and indistinct voices in the background mumble-singing "Glou, glou glou" in English. After that are some explanatory shots of Lindorf and Stella's servant. Lindorf's lines and opening aria are cut. Then we get to the bar-- Luther's tavern. Things get a little more accurate there, and the English translations aren't half bad. Heck, they threw in a ballet of Kleinzach when Hoffman sings "Il était une fois à la cour d'Eisenach". Cute. Charming. Whatever. On we head to Olympia-- a very Disney-like story book page shows us the cast of the story, as well as the setting. There is a new setting for every tale, as well as a new cast (for the most part). It's a very interesting production, really-- Spalanzani, Cochenille, Coppeliús, Hoffman, and Nicklausse are the only people who are real, and even Cochenille is only half-human. Everyone else is marionettes and dolls. Coppeliús's design is a little freaky. There are eyes sewn all over his coat (Ha-ha, very funny touch, Mr. Costume Designer) and although you can't see it in the picture, his eyebrows literally stuck four inches off of his face! I was pleased that they kept his aria in. It's a great piece, and they did some really interesting things with all the weird spectacles and pince-nez. Moira Shearer (who danced) and Dorothy Bond (who sang) rocked the mic as Olympia! They were the coolest version of Olympia I have yet seen. Odd choices in this act? Olympia starts brushing Hoffman off when they're alone and he accidentally "pushes the wrong button" as it were. In the opera, she simply runs off, which leaves him confused. Also, when Coppeliús takes her apart, the director cleverly used a black velvet background and pieces of matching black velvet to cover the various ligaments that are "broken." Howevever, this was shoddily done: the editing of the effect was choppy and amateur, there are some moments where the velvet on Moira Shearer slides up and you can see her skin, and for the final shot of her disassembled body, you can clearly make out her form, with one leg still exposed in the Olympia costume, sitting on a platform while the said remaining leg "dances" on its own.

 Giulietta Act: Totally freaking creepy!!! The opening shows Giulietta in her weird, skin-tight, green bodysuit on a gondolier singing "Belle Nuit" with her own reflection-- uh, weird! In her house, there are all these scantily clad people lying around on stone tablets making out and eating, and Hoffman suddenly has a mustache. Uh, really weird! Dapertutto dances around a hall turning candlewax into jewels while singing a poorly-translated English version of "Scintille, diamant," and offers Giulietta a poorly-designed and mismatched necklace of said wax-jewels, and there's some more terrible special effects editing as he turns them into a string of multicolored wax round her neck and back into jewels again. Also, the beautiful sextet "Helas, mon coeur s'egare encore" consists merely of Hoffman walking around in a circle and each joining part of the sextet following him in that circle. That's all they do. Just walk in a circle and sing. Totally weird! Also, in the part where Hoffman loses his reflection, he and Giulietta dance in front of what looks like a mirror, but is in fact and empty space, into the distance of which are dancing another pair of dancers as the reflections of Hoffman and Giulietta, and eventually, the second Hoffman disappears. How can I tell? The "reflection" couple got out of sync a couple of times. Too weird! 

Antonia Act: Lots of bad, bad choices. They set it on an island in Greece, which is strange considering the libretto specifically says in one of Crespel's lines that they're in Munich.They cut Frantz's aria, which didn't bother me so much because I find that one a little annoying, but whatever. Dr. Miracle looks exactly like Dracula. Come on, production designer! Couldn't you have come up with something a little more original? Most of Crespel's lines are cut, they made some really strange directing choices with the trio that starts with "Si vous voulez accepeter mon secours," i.e., it was pretty much all shots of either the Dr. and Crespel or Antonia running around her room looking scared. And the one thing that really irked me about this act: When Antonia and Miracle and Antonia's mother (in this production, a statue) have their duet, you see these lights shining behind the statue-- but it stays a statue. You'd think that with all the money these people obviously spent on costumes, sets, special effects, the hiring of dancers and singers, etc., that they could at least bring the statue to life (or fix the weird editing from the two prior acts). Come on!

Last act: There is another superfluous ballet in which Hoffman's Three Loves and Three Nemeses dance around and eventually turn into Stella and Lindorf. Nice little way to explain things to an audience, but you can cut those dances down by like, ten minutes! And then, after everyone leaves, Stella enters, finds Hoffman drunk, and leaves with Lindorf. Final pet peeve? They cut the Muse's revelation. I sat through two and a half hours of blinding technicolor drug trip ballets, and I don't get to see Hoffman have his happy ending with the Muse?? NO FREAKING WAY. Those are two and a half hours of my life I will never get back. Apparently, they filmed that ending (and painted the actress who played the Muse in gold leaf for it) but decided to cut it out of the film. Lamesauce, guys!

The casting was really excellent. Robert Rounseville and Ann Ayars, who played Hoffman and Antonia, respectively, were the only cast members who sang their own roles. 
Lindorf, Coppeliús, Dapertutto, Dr. Miracle: Bruce Dargavel sang and Robert Helpmann danced.
Nicklausse: Acted by Pamela Brown, sung by Monica Sinclair 
Olympia and Stella: Danced by Moira Shearer and Olympia sung by Dorothy Bond.
Giulietta:  Danced by Ludmilla Tchérina, sung by Margherita Grandi
Spalanzani, Frantz, Schlemil:  Léonide Massine danced, and Grahame Clifford sang Spalanzani and Frantz.
Kleinzach and Cochenille were danced by Frederick Ashton and Cochenille and Nathaniel were sung by Murray Dickie.
Hermann, Schlemil, and Crespel were sung by Owen Brannigan and danced by Richard Golding, Léonide Massine, and Mogens Wieth, respectively.

The dubbing was absolutely awful. I understand, it's hard to concentrate on your mouth when you're moving around so much, but no one should try to get away with that in a movie! Of all the ballerinas and danseurs (yes, that is the proper term for a male ballet dancer), Ludmilla Tchérina was the most consistent about lip syncing. Snaps to her! The sound quality of this film is terrible. It's in English, and I still have to put on subtitles because I can't hear a single ruddy word anyone is saying! And, as was usual in the early 50's when filmmakers were still experimenting with color film, every single color in this film is not in any particular set palette and therefore clashes with every other color, and all of these gaudy, clashing colors are horribly bright and saturated. It's blinding! And ballet is nice and all, but two and a half hours of a creepy, technicolor ballet? That's a little much for me, and I'm all for weird forms of theatre. 

So what's my verdict? Unless you are more curious than that cat that got killed, don't bother with this movie. It holds many disappointments. I hope you enjoyed the review, and as always, I remain,

Your friend and fellow opera-lover,

~R.M.  

Tales of a drunk, depressed fantasy author

That's right, kiddies! This week, we're going to learn about one of the greatest French operas in the popular repertoire: Jacques Offenbach's "Les Contes D'Hoffman" or "The Tales of Hoffman."

Offenbach specialized in operettas and wrote very few full-scale operas. Amongst the many famous melodies he wrote, most people recognize the Can-can, the Marine's Hymn ("From the Halls of Montezuma"), and the Barcarolle from "Hoffman." He started writing "Hoffman" in 1877 and died, having finished the vocal and piano score and most of the orchestration, in 1880. Four months later, in February of 1881, "Hoffman" was performed for the public for the first time, the orchestration having been finished by Ernest Guiraud. It was and is considered Offenbach's masterpiece. It concerns E.T.A. Hoffman, who narrates the tales of his three great loves to his friends. In each of these tales, as in reality, his love is stolen or destroyed by an evil genius. After he finishes his stories, he falls over drunk, and his Muse reveals herself to him.

For the purpose of this blog, it's kind of important for me to explain the plot at length-- please pardon-- if you don't want to bother reading it, just skip this paragraph, but I'll warn you, most of the other stuff won't make sense. So here it goes. The opera opens with the Muse and the Spirits of Wine and Beer. The Muse is calling on the Spirits to help her win back Hoffman, who is currently in love with an opera diva named Stella. Next, the Evil Councilor Lindorf is seen buying a letter intended for Hoffman from Stella's servant. Inside is a key to the diva's dressing room and an invitation for Hoffman to come in after the opera. So Lindorf steals the key and then goes to the tavern to make sure Hoffman doesn't make it to the opera. There, Hoffman and his friends are having a good time drinking and talking about each other's girlfriends. However, whenever Hoffman's mistress Stella is mentioned, he sulks. He entertains his companions first with the legend of a dwarf named Kleinzach, and then offers to tell them the stories of his three great loves. The students all clamor to hear, and even Lindorf stops to listen. The first tale Hoffman tells is of Olympia, an automaton made by the scientists Spalanzani and Coppélius. Spalanzani has told everyone that Olympia is his daughter, and Hoffman has posed as a student in order to get closer to Olympia, whom he has seen once in a window and believes is a real girl. Spalanzani holds a great party where Olympia is to make her debut, and Coppélius sneaks in to make a bargain with Spalanzani. Coppélius sells Hoffman a pair of rose-colored glasses that allow him to see Olympia as a real human being. Spalanzani tricks Coppélius out of 500 ducats. The party goes on, and Olympia sings a dazzling aria and impresses all the guests, always with Spalanzani or his servant Cochenille touching her shoulder to rewind her mechanism. All the guests are called to dinner, and Hoffman is asked if he will keep Olympia company. Hoffman is delighted and confesses his love to Olympia. He puts his hand on her shoulder as he talks to her, and all she ever says is "Oui! Oui!" which he takes to be agreement and a confession of her love. But then, he touches her hand, and she gets up and starts running around, he following to find out how he has offended her. Hoffman's best friend Nicklausse comes and tells him what the other guests are saying about Olympia: "That she is dead... Or never was alive!" Hoffman disregards this and finds Olympia again as a waltz begins. He and the doll dance, and as the pace of the waltz grows faster, so do the doll's movements, until she throws Hoffman and his spectacles break. Meanwhile, Coppélius has discovered that he has been swindled and vows revenge. When Olympia exits, Coppélius is waiting in her room and smashes her to pieces. Spalanzani is overwrought with grief, and the guests all laugh at Hoffman for having been in love with a doll. The second tale is of Giulietta, a courtesan. Hoffman shows disinterest and even disdain for her and claims that he will never fall under her spell. Giulietta is offered a beautiful diamond by the wicked Dapertutto in exchange for stealing Hoffman's reflection. Giulietta accepts and soon captures Hoffman in her snare, pleading for him to let her have his reflection, which he agrees to in his delirium. Schlémil, Giulietta's former lover (whose shadow she has also stolen for Dapertutto) is enraged to find her and Hoffman together. Schlémil has the key to Giulietta's room, which Hoffman kills him for in a duel. Then, he discovers that his reflection really has been stolen, and Giulietta and Dapertutto, laughing, abandon him when the authorities are called. Nicklausse drags Hoffman away from the scene. The third and final tale is of Antonia, a dying girl with an angelic voice. Her father Crespel orders her not to sing for fear of aggravating her condition, and tries to tell his deaf servant Frantz not to let anyone in the house. Frantz, of course, misunderstands his master and lets Hoffman in to see Antonia. The couple sing a love duet and discuss their plans to elope the next day. Then, Antonia leaves Hoffman hides as Crespel enters and Frantz announces the arrival of Dr. Miracle. Crespel is enraged and tells Frantz not to let Miracle in, saying that the "doctor" will only kill Antonia as he killed her mother, Crespel's wife. Nevertheless, the doctor enters as if by magic and takes a seat. He calls Antonia and gestures as if seating her, feeling her pulse, etc. and when he asks her to sing, her voice is heard, even though she is not present in the room. Miracle claims he can cure her, but Crespel drives him out. Hoffman leaves his hideout and Antonia re-enters. Hoffman begs her not to sing, and she promises not to. But then, Miracle appears in her room and whispers in her ear, telling her that a woman of her talent and beauty should not be ignored and remain obscure. She should be a diva! She should be applauded and praised! Hoffman only wants her for her beauty, and he will eventually turn to infidelity, says the Doctor. Why should she give up her dreams for that? Antonia tries to ignore the Doctor, because she loves Hoffman so dearly, and kneels, imploring, before her mother's portrait. Miracle haunts the portrait and makes it sing with Antonia's mother's voice. He begins to wildly play a violin and tells Antonia to join her mother's voice with her own. Antonia does so, and when she begins gasping for her last breaths, Miracle disappears and Crespel rushes to his daughter's side. Antonia dies, and Crespel blames Hoffman and tries to kill him, but Nicklausse stops the grieving father. Thus ends the last of Hoffman's tales. Then, the audience sees the same set-up from the first scene: Hoffman and his friends in the tavern. Nicklausse explains that the three women all represented different parts of one woman-- Stella. Olympia is her body, Giulietta is her mind, and Antonia is her soul. Hoffman passes out in a drunken stupor and the crowd leaves. Then, Nicklausse reveals himself to be Hoffman's Muse, who cries, "The man is no more-- be reborn a poet! I love you, Hoffman! Be mine!" Hoffman declares his loves for the Muse, and once again falls unconscious. Stella, who had waited for Hoffman, finds him dead drunk, and Nicklausse tells her that the Councilor has been waiting for her. Stella exits with Lindorf, and the opera ends.

There are a lot of interesting notes and traditions with "Hoffman." The traditions are in regards to the casting: Normally, one bass-baritone will play the four villains (Lindorf, Coppélius, Dapertutto, and Dr. Miracle), one tenor will play Spalanzani, Pitichinaccio (a dwarf in Giulietta's tale) Frantz, and Andrés (one of Hoffman's friends in the tavern), and there are a few other parts that are usually cast as dual roles with Hoffman's buddies Herman and Nathanaël. Also, it used to be a tradition for one soprano to play all four of Hoffman's lovers (Olympia, Giulietta, Antonia, and Stella), but in recent years, the only singers to have done this are Beverly Sills and Joan Sutherland. Productions of this opera can, unfortunately, get very creepy due to its fantastic nature. Also, many times, the order of the tales gets mixed up-- many productions have the story of Antonia before the story of Giulietta. This order makes less sense to me because the loss of Antonia is the most tragic and therefore has the most impact on the audience, and that impact holds over when the story returns to Hoffman and his pals at the Tavern. Also, I feel that it is more effective because it builds up the drama as he moves from one facet of Stella to the next in order of importance: the body, the mind, and last but most importantly, the soul. Sorry if that doesn't quite make sense, but that's just the way I see it. So anyway, this opera is incredible. If possible, you should see it live, because oh my gosh, it is so cool!! The music is absolutely gorgeous. Plot-wise and music-wise, Offenbach never loses me for a moment. He was absolutely brilliant, and this opera really is a masterpiece!

 I ordered this on Amazon for $18.50 (Available as MP3 downloads or physical discs. I got physical discs)and ordered the Sills/Bergonzi/Cappuccilli "Lucia di Lammermoor" for the same price at the same time. I got free shipping! Free shipping makes this Ruthie a very happy Ruthie. Anyway, I love this recording of "Hoffman!"


Beverly Sills, I have discovered, is fabulous! Her voice is so light and clear, her diction is impeccable (compared to Sutherland's, anyway), and her voice isn't muddled or anything. It's wonderful! She's delightfully perky and bereft of true emotion as Olympia, dark, mysterious, and sneaky as Giulietta, and innocent and doleful as Antonia. I love Beverly Sills!


Stuart Burrows isn't half bad in the title role (although I'll confess, Joseph Calléja is my favorite Hoffman), and strangely enough, he kind of looks like the real E.T.A. Hoffman. Burrows expresses a lot of emotion, and his voice is nice and consistent. Kudos to Mr. Burrows!


Norman Treigle is our evil quartet of bass-baritone villains. The guy just looks like a bad@ss, without makeup or costumes or anything. His voice is terrific. He too is very expressive, and so good at being nasty!! Treigle does an absolutely astounding job as each one of Hoffman's arch-rivals. Über-kudos to Norman Treigle!!!


Susanne Marsee is delightful and fun to listen to as Nicklausse/The Muse, and she delivers her spoken lines (she has a spoken monologue at the start of the opera and another at the close) very effectively. She does a great job!


Nico Castel plays Andrés/Spalanzani/Pitichinaccio/Frantz. It's wonderful! He has a lovely set of pipes, and he's very good at acting with his voice. Schlémil/Hermann is played by Raimund Herinx, Nathanaël/Cochenille by Bernard Dickerson, Crespel by Robert Lloyd, and the Voice of Antonia's Mother is sung by Patricia Kern. All are amazing. Such strong, vibrant voices, and all of them expressive! This is a truly perfect cast. Also, Julius Rudel conducted very nicely. I couldn't really hear any kinds of mistakes or places where he should've slowed down or anything. He was spot-on.

This is a very impressive recording, and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in trying "Les Contes D'Hoffman." Next week I'll tell you about the new "Lucia di Lammermoor." Until then, I remain


Your friend and fellow opera-lover,


~R.M.