tamaranth | Framed by Beer: Offenbach's 'Tales of Hoffmann' at the ROH

The Royal Opera House's production of Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann is four hours long (with two intervals and a couple of extended scene changes) and I didn't get bored once.

I'd forgotten how dull the first act is, in comparison with the rest of the opera. The scene is a basement bar in Paris, near L'Opera, where Hoffmann's idol Stella is performing in Don Giovanni. Hoffman and his friends come in. They sing a song about beer. And a song about getting drunk. And another song about beer. It is all rather monochrome and reminiscent of one of those Manet paintings full of Characters. Characters with Beer.

After that the whole thing livens up immensely as Hoffmann ~~whines on~~ tells the stories of his three love affairs: Olympia the mechanical doll, Giulietta the courtesan and Antonia the singer. These roles, plus Stella (who is supposed to embody them all) are often sung by one singer, as are the four villains. In this production Willard White was multiply wicked, but each of the female roles was taken by a different soprano. Hoffmann (Rolando Villazon) just gets a new costume for each scene.

Ekaterina Siurina was the best of the sopranos, I thought: totally mechanical as the living doll with her music-box song and her staccato gestures -- and the contrast with the 'living doll', all smiles and languid grace, is stunning. Hoffmann sees the living side of his new love only when he puts on his rose-tinted glasses (and the sudden rosy lighting was very effective); he's oblivious to her limited vocabulary and stilted movement. Eventually, as in so many Golden Age SF stories, the robot is smashed to bits by a jealous villain (Willard White as Dr Coppelius) and Hoffmann realises that she was just a pretty face.

As Giulietta, Jennifer Larmore was charming: but she didn't have the charisma Willard White's Dappertutto, White's Satanic triple villain coming into his own as he beguiles Giulietta into stealing Hoffmann's reflection. Willard White does make a marvellous villain: lots of practice, I suppose, as so many bass roles are Wicked. Actually, the set almost upstaged them both. The same basic staging was used for all the scenes -- upper level at the back, two staircases leading down to stage right and stage left, doorway at stage left. For this Venetian palazzo, the space behind the stairways became a canal, complete with mist and gondolas and a colonnaded walk beyond. Giulietta's bed sprawled halfway across the stage, all red and burgundy and gilding: the whole set gleamed and glittered like a Venetian mask.

Elena Kelessidi's Antonia seemed weakest of the three: in her duet with Hoffmann, their voices didn't harmonise well, and she seemed drowned out. Her other key duet, with Elizabeth Sikora as her dead mother -- brought to life from a portrait by evil Dr Miracle -- was spelndid, but Kelessidi's voice just wasn't ... rich enough? Expressive enough? Maybe it's just that scene, which is the darkest and least sparkling of the three 'tales'.

And oooh, the ending. I'd forgotten how much I loved it from the ENO production, and I wasn't sure then that they weren't extrapolating, or rearranging, or otherwise enhancing the scene (a.k.a. 'doing an ENO'). Apparently not. All along, Hoffmann has been accompanied, teased, encouraged and supported by his companion Nicklaus (sung by Ruxandra Donose). In this final scene, while a couple of Characters are painting a fresco of the Muses, Nicklaus tells Hoffmann how all his loves are aspects of Stella. And then Nicklaus casts off his disguise -- her disguise -- and is revealed as the Muse of Poetry, in flowing white draperies. She implores Hoffmann to give up the Beer (obviously impossible, as he knows so many drinking songs) and devote himself to his art. And then she climbs the stairs and enters the fresco, and the other Muses turn and greet her: and then the fresco is just a flat wall again.

It wasn't a perfect production. We had a great view, even from way back in the upper amphitheatre, but some of the voices carried better than others. (This may have been the problem with Antonia). The orchestra managed to make Offenbach's music sound a bit too much like an end-of-the-pier show (too much oompah). But the staging was gorgeous, the effects (the portrait that's gradually just a landscape as Antonia's mother returns to drive her to her death; the Muse-fresco; the rose-tinted lighting; the canal; the flames and contraptions and mirrors?) were truly effective -- a rarity in opera! -- and the singing, mostly, was wonderful.

Finishes February 17th, so you still have a chance: and, much cheaper, it's on Radio 3 on 11th February -- next Wednesday. At 6:30, if it's a live broadcast.

The Royal Opera House's website claims this is Offenbach's only opera. So what about La Belle Helene, then? (I loved Opera della Luna's production last year, reviewed here.) Operetta, eh? One day I will find a definition that works ...