France Offenbach, Les contes d’Hoffmann: Soloists, Paris Opera Refrain and Orchestra / Eun Solar Kim. Opéra nationwide de Paris, Opéra Bastille, Paris, 15.12.2023. (RP)
Manufacturing:
Director – Robert Carsen
Revival director – Marguerite Borie
Units and Costumes – Michael Levine
Lighting – Jean Kalman
Choreography – Philippe Giraudeau
Dramaturgy – Ian Burton
Refrain grasp – Alessandro Di Stefano
Forged:
Hoffmann – Benjamin Bernheim
Olympia – Fairly Yende
Giulietta – Antoinette Dennefeld
Antonia – Rachel Willis-Sørensen
Lindorf / Coppélius / Dapertutto / Miracle – Christian Van Horn
Muse / Nicklausse – Angela Brower
Andrès / Cochenille / Pitichinaccio / Frantz – Leonardo Cortellazzi
Spalanzani – Christophe Mortagne
Nathanaël – Cyrille Lovighi
Hermann – Christian Rodrigue Moungoungou
Crespel / Luther – Vincent Le Texier
Voice of Antonia’s mom – Sylvie Brunet-Grupposo
Schlémil – Alejandro Baliñas Vieites
Benjamin Bernheim reigned supreme within the Paris Opera revival of Robert Carsen’s manufacturing of Les contes d’Hoffmann. The French tenor, nevertheless, was hardly the one excellent singer. From Fairly Yende’s dazzling, demented Olympia to Christian Van Horn’s suave, hitman-like tackle Offenbach’s 4 personifications of evil, the forged was merely very good.
Carsen’s manufacturing, first seen in 2000, updates the motion to the current day. The change hardly registers as his staging so effortlessly captures the spirit of the opera. Offenbach launched Mozart’s Don Giovanni within the Prologue, and Carsen expands upon it by having a efficiency of the opera function the backdrop for Hoffmann to narrate the story of his three fantastical, unrequited loves.
When one enters the home, the curtain is raised, and Hoffmann lies matted and spent on a naked stage amid sheets of paper and empty wine bottles. His Muse seems within the guise of a lovely girl with lengthy blond hair carrying a flowing white costume. Instantly, the naked stage is remodeled into the bar of the opera home. The viewers’s view is of the bottom of the bar with bottles, glasses and kegs on full show. It’s the stage for Hoffmann to sing his track in regards to the dwarf Kleinzach, and for the refrain to evoke spirits with its lusty singing.
Act I takes place within the laboratory of the mad scientist Spalanzani, full with bottles of eyeballs and different physique components. Sporting rose-colored glasses, Hoffmann is smitten with Olympia, Spalanzani’s creation. Coppélius, who provided the eyeballs for which Spalanzani refuses to pay, brandishes a noticed and foreshadows Olympia’s destiny.
Antonia’s scene is noticed from the attitude of the conductor. She has inherited each her mom’s deadly sickness and her love of singing, which collectively will show deadly. Her mom seems on the stage above the orchestra pit in a efficiency of Don Giovanni and, upon listening to her voice, Antonia sings herself to loss of life.
The primary corridor of the opera home turns into Giulietta’s bordello with rows of seats gently swaying to the strains of the Barcarolle. It’s a bit kitschy however charming in its method. Enthusiastic couplings of all kinds happen all through the corridor. The tawdriness aligns with Giulietta’s duplicity. She by no means beloved Hoffmann: he served as a way for her to acquire the glowing jewellery that Dapertutto dangled earlier than her.
Having completed the story of his three loves, Hoffmann is again on the bar, the place Nicklausse tells him that each one three ladies have been completely different facets of Stella, the lady he really loves. When Stella returns to seek out him drunk, she leaves with Lindorf, the wealthy councilor who has pursued her from the beginning. As the scholars name for extra ingesting, Nicklausse seems in her guise because the Muse, telling Hoffmann that love makes us nice however tears even higher.
I lived in Zurich for a number of years, and when Bernheim appeared on the scene as a member of the Worldwide Opera Studio, one was instantly impressed by the wonder and distinctive readability of his lyric tenor. With such a voice, his rise to worldwide stardom comes as no shock – his evolution right into a consummate singing actor only a bit.
Bernheim captures all of the contradictions within the poet’s advanced character. The sad-dog expressions on his face mirror Hoffmann’s frustrations in love and artwork. His face beams when transfixed by visions of magnificence and love, as does his voice. His blazing excessive notes, nevertheless, got here considerably as a shock: they have been merely superb.
Fairly Yende is one other singer that Zurich audiences heard early in her profession. These of us who noticed Yende’s firm debut in Bellini’s I puritani in 2016 will always remember her charisma and the silvery fantastic thing about her voice. As Offenbach’s Olympia, a wide-eyed and wacky Yende dispatched Olympia’s roulades and trills brilliantly in a voice that has grown with out shedding any of its sparkle. Yende’s Olympia reached orgiastic heights of ecstasy straddled atop Bernheim’s Hoffmann on a hay wagon, which delighted the viewers.
Bass-baritone Christian Van Horn has been a continuing presence on the Metropolitan Opera, which is now my common beat, for the previous two seasons. He has accomplished yeoman’s work in such roles as Colline in La bohème and the King in Aida. With Offenbach’s 4 villains, Paris Opera has given Van Horn roles that he can actually sink his enamel into, and the result’s great. His darkish, scintillating voice and sinister demeanor elicited a shiver of terror each time he appeared on stage.
Within the twin roles of Hoffmann’s Muse and his pal Nicklausse, Angela Brower, together with her supple mezzo-soprano and successful persona, was equally participating. She was glamorous and mysterious because the Muse, whereas convincingly mannish as Nicklausse. Rachel Willis-Sørensen poured out waves of luscious sound because the tormented Antonia. As Giulietta, Antoinette Dennefeld was likewise resplendent, whereas exuding a crude demeanor because the calculating courtesan.
Among the many different successful characterizations have been Christophe Mortagne’s Spalanzani along with his wild white hair standing on finish, and the quadruple-cast Leonardo Cortellazzi (his deaf, befuddled Frantz was a standout). The positive baritone Alejandro Baliñas Vieites was dashing because the doomed Schlémil, Hoffmann’s rival for Giulietta’s love.
Eun Solar Kim drew thrilling sound from the orchestra. They conveyed the myriad feelings, from ribald to tragic, that course via the rating with clear tones and vitalness. Kim’s sense of steadiness was so precise that it appeared as if singers and orchestra breathed and carried out as one. It was a tremendous feat, saluted by the viewers because the curtain fell.
Rick Perdian
