Offenbach, Jacques

Offenbach - Les contes d'Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann) / Pretre, Domingo, Royal Opera Covent Garden

This is as good a video of the traditional Tales of Hoffmann as we are ever likely to see. It alters the material Offenbach left when he died, but it is the Hoffmann that audiences have loved for decades in a brilliant all-star production. Plácido Domingo is vocally resplendent and theatrically convincing as the poet Hoffmann enduring one amorous disappointment after another. He is supported by a large, expert, international cast, alert to the opera's wit, horror, and pathos.

Particularly outstanding are Luciana Serra, vocally flawless and visually mechanical as the singing robot Olympia; Ileana Cotrubas as Antonia, who sings herself to death; Claire Powell as Hoffmann's partner Niklausse; and all four of the deep-voiced villains. This production departs from Offenbach's evident intentions particularly in the Venetian act, which it places second rather than last and pads out with material Offenbach never included. These additions, however, include some of the best-loved material in the opera. --Joe McLellan

Offenbach's extraordinary opera is performed here in this Covent Garden production by Placido Domingo, Luciana Serra, Agnes Baltsa and Ileana Cotrubas. The Royal Opera House Orchestra and Chorus are conducted by Georges Pretre.

Offenbach - La Grande-Duchesse de Gerolstein / Lott, Piau, Beuron, Le Roux, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Minkowski (Theatre du Chatelet)

Dame Felicity Lott stars in a rollicking performance of Offenbach's operetta "La Grande Duchesse de Gerolstein." Features the same cast as the studio recording released on CD in October 2005. The stage production was filmed in December 2004 at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris. The result is a kaleidoscope of artistry and comedy that should not be missed! This production goes back to the original version which had been adjusted and censored after it's premiere at the Theatre des Varietes in 1867.

Offenbach - La Belle Helene / Minkowski, Lott, Beuron, Senechal, Naouri, Le Roux, Torodovitch, Chatelet Opera

Staged and costumed by Laurent Pelly, this production Offenbach's parody of the origins of the Trojan War is a supreme manifestation of his comic genius. It combines a musically superb performance with a stream of visual humour that flows from Pelly's core idea that the action all takes place in the imagination of a sleeping, sex-starved, suburban housewife. Dame Felicity Lott is magnificent as the woman who dreams of being the most beautiful woman in the world. The production explodes with gaiety and invention throughout and "is as innocently filthy as only the French can manage" (The Times). Lott adds an undeniable elegance and sings with "Mozartian refinement" (Herald Tribune).

Offenbach - Des contes d'Hoffmann (Some Tales of Hoffmann) / Nagano, Galvez-Vallejo, Dessay, Lyon Opera

This is not quite the most controversial opera video recording of our time (that title would probably go to Valery Gergiev's 1993 Kirov production of Prokofiev's The Fiery Angel), but it is a strong contender. It has, in one package, two tendencies that give special creative tensions to opera production in our time: the musicians' imperative for fidelity to the composer's intentions, and the stage director's impulse to use the story, characters, sets, costumes, etc., as springboards for his own creative imagination.

Jacques Offenbach's last opera (his only grand opera) is specially vulnerable to such tensions because he died before finishing it. Musically, some of the opera's best-loved moments (notably the bass aria "Scintille, diamant") were cobbled together (using melodic material from other Offenbach works) after Offenbach's death. This production, the first video recording based on the new, critical performing score prepared by musicologist Michael Kaye, omits those beloved, spurious numbers. They are missed, but it's hard to complain about the omission of inauthentic material. In any case, conductor Kent Nagano has assembled a superb cast that does the music full vocal justice--most notably Natalie Dessay, Gabriel Bacquier, and Jose Van Dam.

While Nagano works hard to respect Offenbach's intentions, stage director Louis Erlo runs roughshod over them, so much so that at Kaye's suggestion the production's title was changed from The Tales of Hoffmann to Some Tales of Hoffmann. Offenbach's original treatment takes place in four European cities where Hoffmann fights the same implacable enemy through one doomed love affair after another. In this production, the locale shrinks to one location--a symbol-infested mental hospital. This fits the feverish, surreal atmosphere of E.T.A. Hoffmann's stories and Offenbach's imaginative musical treatment, but many patrons have found the staging offensive--as is their right. I find it often stimulating, but I would not want it to be the only Hoffmann on my shelf. --Joe McLellan

The highlight of the inaugural week of Jean Nouval's new opera house in Lyon was the premiere of "Tales of Hoffmann." Inspired by Offenbach's "Les Contes d'Hoffmann" and freely based on the performing edition by leading American musicologist Michael Kaye, this production is far removed from its familiar settings. Hoffmann--poet, musician and philosopher--finds himself trapped in some kind of infernal huis clos, surrounded by mutant incarnations of the men and women who have been instrumental in his moral and creative decline. Insanity, drunkenness or nightmare? Daniel Galvez-Vallejo, a young French tenor of Spanish descent, makes a striking impression in the title role. The four villains are portrayed by the peerless Belgian bass-baritone Jose van Dam, and the legendary Gabriel Bacquier plays Spalanzani, Crespel and Schlemil with veteran aplomb.

Offenbach - Orpheus in the Underworld / Davin, Badea, Vidal, Theatre de la Monnaie Brussels

Orpheus in the Underworld (Orphe aux Enfers), Offenbach's riotous parody of the dissipations of French life in the Second Empire, fairly gallops past in this 1997 Herbert Wernicke production staged at the Theatre de la Monnaie in Brussels.

The casting is excellent, with Jacqueline van Quaille's chain-smoking dowager Juno heading the field. Alexandru Badea's Orpheus subverts the legend in his purely pragmatic pursuit of Eurydice (the thrush-voiced soprano Elizabeth Vidal) that has nothing to do with love. Dale Duesing's Jupiter is sexy, particularly in the very funny fly scene in the second act. From first to last, Wernicke's production offers something to catch the eye and ear, culminating in the well-loved, frantic cancan finale. Overall this is not only well sung but very entertaining. --Piers Ford

Bored with the cushioned confines of Mount Olympus, a dissolute band of gods decides to go slumming in Hell in "Orpheus in the Underworld." Offenbach's famous "can-can" is one high point in this stylish, witty, and elegant production, which also features a stupendous entry into Hell via a steam-belching locamotive which crashes directly through the ceiling. Recorded live at Brussel's Theatre de la Monnaie, this visual and musical delight was directed by Herbert Wernicke and conducted by Patrick Davin, providing a powerful sensory experience you won't soon forget.

Impressionists Art Galleries (Sisley, Pissarro, Monet, Degas, Cezanne, Gauguin, Renoir, Millais, Van Gogh) and music of their time (Respighi, Offenbach, Elgar, Strauss, Saint-Saens and Ponchielli) 2DVDs set MosaicDVD 2008

This awesome 2DVDs collection presents 639 stunning artworks by prominent artists of impressionists movement and underlined by magnificent and breathtaking music of their predecessors and contemporaries: Respighi, Offenbach, Elgar, Strauss, Saint-Saens and Ponchielli. It creates unbelievable aesthetic experience and allows complete immersion into compassion of the impressionists' era, approaching their inspirations and surroundings. On MosaicDVDs artists and their contemporary composers are presented in natural and interweaving complexity. Would be your primary interest in arts on in music this DVD program will delight immeasurably.

Offenbach - Orpheus in der Unterwelt

Offenbach - La Belle Helene / Harnoncourt - Complete Opera

Offenbach's operetta La Belle Hélène, which pokes fun at the Parisian upper class of a century and a half ago through tales of ancient Greece, requires a leap of imagination that this production only partly succeeds in reconciling. On musical grounds we're on sure footing. Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducts the chorus and orchestra of the Zurich Opera House with his customary flair for precise and taut rhythms and an appreciation of the composer's wit and the good tunes that are a-plenty. His multinational cast headed by Vesselina Kasarova as Helen of Troy and Deon van der Walt as her lover, Paris, are excellent, and among the smaller parts there's a lively and stylish performance from Liliana Nichiteanu as Oreste. The video direction by Hartmut Schroder and the superb sound obtained from the relatively intimate Zurich Opera House, a delightful setting for this operetta, are further assets.

The production, alas, is unenlightening and perpetrates an over-the-top style that seems to be synonymous with Offenbach. The backdrop, a pink concave awning, is hideous. The costumes by designer Jean-Charles de Castelibajac are silly: Paris is dressed in lederhosen and looks like a twerp, the high priest Calchac wears a Ku Klux Klan hat, and Helen at one point looks as though she'll take to rappelling. Kasarova suggests the lure of Helen in her voice, but a beauty she's not. So it's left to Harnoncourt, who joins the company at the curtain call with a twinkle in his eye and a nifty side step, and his superb orchestra to remind us what might have been. --Adrian Edwards

Offenbach's light-hearted opera is based on the story of Helen of Troy. Helmut Lohner's lavish interpretation is delightfully entertaining, highlighting the declining social mores of the Parisian upper classes under the second empire. Conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt conjures up an unusual combination of sounds and a new listening experience, with an orchestra configured to replicate that which would have been available to Offenbach.

Offenbach - Les Contes d'Hoffmann / Guingal, Machado, Gorny, Goeldner, Opera de Bilbao

Offenbach in Paris / von Otter, Les Musicians du Louvre, Minkowski [Theatre du Chatelet 2002]

Anne Sofie Von Otter gives a dazzling vocal display in this concert from the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. Lyrically superb, she is wickedly sly, deliciously naughty and delightfully playful as she literally dons the hats of some of the feisty females who inhabit Offenbach's best-loved operettas. She is joined by singers Magali Léger, Stéphanie d'Oustrac, Gilles Ragon, Laurent Naouri, Jean-Christophe Henry, Franck Versini and Christophe Grapperon who also assume Offenbach characters with uninhibited relish. Includes passages from La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein, Madame l'Archiduc, La Belle Hélène, Barbe-Bleue, Lischen et Fritzchen, La Vie Parisienne, La Fille du tambour-major and La Périchole, as well as the famous Barcarolle from the opera Les Contes d'Hoffmann. To round off an exhilarating evening, the orchestra, soloists and chorus join in a boisterous rendition of Offenbach's most famous creation, the cancan. Marc Minkowski conducts Les Musiciens du Louvre-Grenoble.