Hoffmanns Erzählungen by Offenbach, Mi. 26 Okt. 2022, Ab (2022/2023), Unter der Regie von Nicole Claudia Weber,, Dirigat Gabor Hontvári, Carlo Benedetto Cimento, Theaterfabrik Blaue Halle, Würzburg, Deutschland

"While love makes great, pain makes greater!" The focus of the opera is the life and love confession of the poet Hoffmann. Intoxicated by alcohol and disillusioned with life, he rails against women in general and in particular against the three whom he once adored in vain, without their love being returned. First he falls for the seemingly perfect Olympia, a mechanical doll. Their soulless shell shatters, as does the heart of the singer Antonia, who was led by Dr. Miracle is seduced to the fatal song. After meeting the courtesan Giulietta, Hoffmann even appears as a murderer, driven by the demonic Dapertutto. Only the muse knows that in the fantastic stories Hoffmann is chasing after his ideal love figure – Stella. But in the end, a devastated and disillusioned Hoffmann remains. "Les Contes d'Hoffmann" is still one of Jacques Offenbach's most popular works. In addition to the much-performed master operettas of "Orpheus in the Underworld" and "Beautiful Helena" on Parisian life and the "Grand Duchess of Gerolstein", "Hoffmann" is considered Offenbach's most important contribution to the "grand opera". His death on October 5, 1880, in the midst of preparations for the premiere at the Paris Opéra-Comique, prevented the completion of a final version. Irrespective of regular discoveries of new music, the last word on the subject of “The Tales of Hoffmann” has not yet been spoken; a circumstance that is also reflected in a peculiar way in the dramaturgy of the opera: the ideal of love can be sung about in the final apotheosis by the muse, but Hoffmann cannot achieve it in real life.