GREAT PERFORMANCES AT THE MET: LES CONTES D’HOFFMANN

Great Performances at the Met: “Les Contes d’Hoffmann” – Erin Morley as Olympia in Offenbach’s “Les Contes d’Hoffmann.”
Photo: Marty Sohl/Metropolitan Opera

Italian Tenor Vittorio Grigolo stars in the title role as the tortured poet unlucky in love in Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann on Great Performances at the Met Sunday, May 10 at 12 p.m. on PBS, in a production by Broadway director Bartlett Sher. Thomas Hampson adds a new role to his extensive repertory as the Four Villains who interfere with Hoffmann’s courtship of four women: the mechanical doll Olympia, sung by American soprano Erin Morley in her role debut; the consumptive artist Antonia and the self-absorbed diva Stella, both portrayed by Russian soprano Hibla Gerzmava; and the Venetian courtesan Giulietta, sung by English mezzo-soprano Christine Rice. American mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey takes the trouser role of Nicklausse, Hoffmann’s faithful muse, and Canadian conductor Yves Abel leads the cast. Soprano Deborah Voigt hosts the broadcast.

Great Performances at the Met: “Les Contes d’Hoffmann” – Vittorio Grigolo in the title role of Offenbach’s “Les Contes d’Hoffmann.” Photo: Marty Sohl/Metropolitan Opera

Great Performances at the Met: “Les Contes d’Hoffmann” – Hibla Gerzmava as Antonia in Offenbach’s “Les Contes d’Hoffmann.”
Photo: Marty Sohl/Metropolitan Opera

After becoming the toast of Paris with his witty operettas, Jacques Offenbach set out to create a more serious work. He chose as his source a successful play based on the stories of visionary German writer E.T.A. Hoffmann. Three of these tales—at once profound, eerie, and funny—were unified in the play by a narrative frame that made Hoffmann the protagonist of his own tales. Each episode recounts a catastrophic love affair: first with a girl who turns out to be an automated doll, then with a sickly young singer, and finally with a Venetian courtesan. In the prologue and epilogue, the hero is involved with an opera singer who seems like a combination of these three previous loves. Throughout the opera, Hoffmann is dogged by a diabolical nemesis and accompanied by his faithful friend Nicklausse, whose true identity is only revealed after bitter experience. Failure in love eventually fuels his future artistic success. Offenbach died before the premiere, leaving posterity without an authorized version of the score.

Erin Morley as Olympia in Offenbach’s “Les Contes d’Hoffmann.”
Photo: Marty Sohl/Metropolitan Opera

Vittorio Grigolo in the title role of Offenbach’s “Les Contes d’Hoffmann.”
Photo: Marty Sohl/Metropolitan Opera

Les Contes d’Hoffmann will be broadcast on THIRTEEN’S Great Performances at the Met Sunday, May 10 at 12 p.m. on PBS.  (Check local listings.) (In New York, THIRTEEN will air the opera at 12:30 p.m.) Les Contes d’Hoffmann was originally seen live in movie theaters on January 31, 2015 as part of the groundbreaking The Met: Live in HD series, which transmits live performances to more than 2,000 movie theaters and performing arts centers in over 70 countries around the world. The Live in HD series has reached a record-breaking 17 million viewers since its inception in 2006.