IU Opera Theater returns to ‘The Tales of Hoffmann’
March 30, 2008
by Peter Jacobi
For the eighth time in its 60-year history, the Indiana University Opera Theater is turning to “The Tales of Hoffmann,” the only opera by that prolific creator of operettas, Jacques Offenbach.
The production, opening Friday evening at the Musical Arts Center, features settings by C. David Higgins. Guest director Chris Alexander will stage the opera, and David Effron will conduct. He’ll have the Concert Orchestra to serve him in the pit.
Offenbach composed “Tales of Hoffmann” late in life, leaving the opera, in fact, with refinements and details incomplete, including the important detail of just how the opera’s acts should be ordered.
A prologue opens the opera, during which we’re introduced to the poet Hoffmann who, inebriated, recounts his experiences with three infatuations, each of whom gets an act: the mechanical doll Olympia, the death-pursued Antonia, and the courtesan Giulietta. The opera concludes with an Epilogue, back in the tavern, for the loose ends of Hoffmann’s tales and his down-to-earth life — drunkenness, poetry and all — to be tied down.
There’s never been a debate about who comes first: that’s Olympia. But producers continue to argue about Antonia and Giulietta, or at least to have conflicting thoughts. Consider the two gentlemen in charge of what we’ll see and hear during the next two weekends. Conductor Effron and director Alexander hold differing opinions about order, and hold them based on their ties to the opera.
Effron says he favors placing the tragedy of Antonia last “because of the power of the music, which reaches its climactic best in that act. I like how the music builds toward that story.” It’s a view that I happen to share because, for me, the musical element of the music drama we call opera is transcendent.
Chris Alexander, however, given the right to make the final decision, has chosen the opposite pairing, and he’s done so following experience of his own. He won a Seattle Opera Artist of the Year Award for his 2005 production of “Hoffmann” in that city.
Following study of the opera from the perspective of story content, he’s concluded that Giulietta should come last because her scene in Venice shows the hero’s “lifestyle going down. Antonia is his great love. With her death, Hoffmann’s life deteriorates, and he moves on to Venice and a dissolute life fueled by his final disappointment.”
Either way, of course, we get an opera laden with musical goodies. Offenbach knew how to write tunes, and he’s bestowed a bounty of them on this operatic project of his, one he considered so important because it was his attempt to prove to those around him and to future generations that his musical talents were worthy of a level of recognition he feared would never be given to his lively, lusty operettas.
Alexander also suggested, and Effron agreed to, a different ending for “Hoffmann.” “Rather than leaving him drunk, a disappointed artist laughed at by the students in the tavern,” Alexander explains, “I favor greater emphasis for the Muse, who tells Hoffmann that, as a poet, he has a special gift, the gift of the artist. The Muse challenges Hoffmann to rise from his drunken state. He takes up the challenge, thereby arguing that art, because it offers hope, makes a difference.”
Musically, Alexander has tacked on a chorus, “perhaps the last thing Offenbach ever wrote, a big chorus that is so beautiful and gives the opera an uplifting conclusion. I think it works.”
Effron notes: “I’ve done the opera lots, but not with this ending. It took me a while to accept the change, but Chris insisted the chorus is powerful. It does bring everyone back to the stage. Scenically, that’s great. Musically, since I’ve been so wedded to other versions, it remains to be seen, but I’m always glad to experiment, and the chorus is lovely.”
Efffon says he loves this “beautiful opera, one of the most effective I’ve ever worked on and always am glad to return to. It’s complicated for us to do, but the orchestra is in good shape. And I see the characterizations forming. Chris Alexander is incredibly creative. He’s got a handle on things.”
Alexander, in describing “Hoffmann,” uses the word “beautiful,” too, adding that the opera is “exciting, fantastical, lots of fun, filled with big challenges in its combination of the comic and the tragic . and it’s perfect for teaching. The casts here are taking so well to it. Rehearsals have been going well. It’s interesting working with two casts. I like the way they watch each other and give advice. They’re all so eager to learn. I’m really enjoying the atmosphere.”
He arrived in Bloomington late last month from Seattle where he staged “Tosca.” Immediately from Bloomington, this busy Utah-born director returns to Germany (he now lives in Bremen), to prepare a theater piece in Berlin. “I thrive on the mix of opera and drama,” he says.
“The Tales of Hoffmann,” though not the first opera ever performed at the School of Music, was the choice when Dean Wilfred Bain, in 1948, established what was to become the IU Opera Theater. And so, here we are, 60 years later, ready to experience this Offenbach gem once again as the institution’s 398th production. Who could have known?
The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music would like
to thank the Herald Times for permission to republish this review.
