Opéra national du Rhin in Strasbourg 2024-25 Review: Les Contes d’Hoffmann

By Rey Andreas

 

From January 20 to February 9, the Opéra national du Rhin in Strasbourg, in coproduction with the Théâtre National de l’Opera Comique, the Vienna Volksopera and the Opéra de Reims, where the production will also be offered, presents Offenbach’s “Les Contes d’Hoffmann.” Well, Offenbch’s “Les Contes d’Hoffmann” is an understatement. Dutch playwright Peter Te Nuyl has rewritten the libretto and dialogue, originally by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, and one wonders why.

The opera is one of the most beautiful of French operas. It stands shoulder to shoulder with Debussy’s “Pélléas et Mélisandre,” Bizet’s “Carmen” and Poulenc’s “Dialogues des carmélites.” Here, the opera is reduced to a three hour version, intermission included, and the cuts made by Peter Te Nuyl not only take away some of the work’s most beautiful moments, but also dry out its drama, deprive it of its truculent character and above all, reinterpret and even ridicule its chimerical aspect.

Oneirism is suppressed, if not mocked. The muse tells the audience that the devil is just an ordinary employee, whom Hoffmann imagines to be the devil, and regularly mocks Hoffmann’s phantasmagorical realism. Yet the lexical field of devil is omnipresent in the first act to describe Lindorf. (I’m old, but I’m lively). The act revolving around Hoffmann’s ill-fated love affair with the automaton Olympia is thus expurgated of its insistence on eyes, and the creditor Elias is only mentioned in one line. Yet the charm of Les Contes d’Hoffmann lies in its use in ordinary life under Napoleon III of the fantastical elements of German literature dating back to the Middle Ages. His reductions and revisitings flatten the work with cold, contemptuous reason. The Olympia act becomes a farce, not very well executed, the Antonia act a realistic tale with coarse, insistent fantastical elements, the Giulietta act a sinister comedy.

It’s also because Dutch director Lotte de Beer doesn’t really know how to work with wonder. The motif of the double, for example, is misused here. Hoffmann’s doubles appear in the first act without any real explanation, and the furniture grows or shrinks without explanation. The same applies to Olympia, who is sometimes an impressively large doll, sometimes the size of a child’s doll.

This depression of the fantastic is also echoed here by the Muse, who constantly accuses Hoffmann of it. A muse like that would be disgusting to take up the pen forever. She openly scorns Hoffman’s phantasmagorical realist style, which is the very style of the opera, and mocks him at every a parte between her and Hoffmann. Each a parte signaled by a black curtain separating them from the rest of the stage, which quickly becomes tiresome with repetition.

Musical Details

All this might be less important if the vocal line-up were better. It has to be said that the performers aren’t quite up to the task. While German tenor Attilio Glaser sings a very articulate French, the muffled sound of his timbre prevents him from hitting the high notes, and from having a full, open expression. What’s more, his recitatives during his conversations with his muse clearly hint at his Germanic accent.

The mezzo Floriane Hasler as Nicklausse and La Muse has a hard, almost dry voice, more like a schoolteacher than a friend, and her high notes reinforce her harshness, as her first act shows.

The idea of using the same singer for the three female characters is not a bad idea, given that they embody three aspects of the same person, but unfortunately soprano Lenneke Ruiten‘s singing sounds as if it’s come out of the last century, harsh and lacking in flexibility. Absolutely not a coloratura, she fails in Oympia’s aria, which, instead of being a bravura aria in which virtuoso musicianship makes us forget the flatness of the text, becomes a kind of recitative completely beside the point, and without charm. She also fails to seduce as Antonia, because her singing doesn’t manage to be fresh enough, and also fails as Giuletta, for lack of sensuality.

However, French baritone Jean-Sébastien Bou stands out from the crowd, with a strong expression that becomes more comfortable with time, but unfortunately doesn’t gain enough depth. The same goes for French tenor Raphaël Brémard, particularly in the Méthode aria, who shows fine expression, but fails to shine in his roles.

We’d like to rely on the orchestra, but the cuts don’t allow it to develop either. Constantly interrupted in its momentum, it lacks continuity and is reduced to moment-by-moment musical accompaniment. All in all, proof that you have to respect the work in order to enjoy it.

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