Paris Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Main informations
By the time he came to tackle the composition of Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Offenbach’s opus already included more than a hundred operas. Left unfinished when he died during rehearsals in October 1880, his last work combines fantasy, gravity and humour in an unexpectedly innovative synthesis of opera buffa, romantic opera and grand opera. This adaptation of three tales by E.T.A. Hoffmann, with a sprinkling of Goethe’s Faust, portrays the German poet as both narrator and hero recounting his love affairs with Olympia, Antonia and Giuletta. Robert Carsen’s spectacular production highlights the melancholy genius of a man marked by life, with a coherence and dramatic sense remarkable for a work that leaves numerous questions unanswered. Under the baton of Philippe Jordan, Nadine Koutcher, Stéphanie d’Oustrac, Kate Aldrich, Yann Beuron and Ramόn Vargas in the main role, interpret the legendary airs of this work whose brilliant mystery will continue to dazzle opera houses for countless years to come.

Opera in a prologue, three acts and an epilogue (1881)
Music / Jacques Offenbach
Libretto / Jules Barbier
After Jules Barbier, Michel Carré
Conductor / Philippe Jordan
Director / Robert Carsen
Sets and costumes designs / Michael Levine
Lighting design / Jean Kalman
Choreography / Philippe Giraudeau
Dramaturgy / Ian Burton
Chorus master / José Luis Basso
Paris Opera Orchestra and Chorus
Presented by Alain Duault
Directed by François Roussillon
Olympia / Nadine Koutcher
Giulietta / Kate Aldrich
Antonia / Ermonela Jaho
La Muse / Nicklausse / Stéphanie d’Oustrac
La mère d’Antonia / Doris Soffel
Hoffmann / Ramόn Vargas
Spalanzani / Rodolphe Briand
Nathanaël / Cyrille Lovighi
Luther / Crespel / Paul Gay
Andrès / Cochenille / Pitichinaccio / Frantz / Yann Beuron
Lindorf / Coppélius / Dapertutto / Miracle / Roberto Tagliavini
Hermann / Laurent Laberdesque
Schlemil / François Lis