Abstract
At the centre of Jacques Offenbach’s only serious opera able to assert itself on the world’s stages stands E.T.A. Hoffmann, the prototype of the German Romantic artist. However, the composer was not interested in a musical biography of the poet. For Offenbach, the author of the fantastical stories became the prototype of the Romantic artist, with his life lived on the edge of the precipice, his doubts, brilliant ideas, and profound crises. Although the piece is based on Hoffmann’s biography, it is mixed with motifs from his works and those of other Romantic authors, thus creating a very particular drama about artists. In his famous study of Offenbach, Siegfried Kracauer describes this opera as a self-portrait of the composer: just as Hoffmann does not succeed in finding the joys of love for which he longs, the composer never succeeded in writing the great opera of which he dreamt. Even though Offenbach’s problem child remained unfinished, with its idiosyncratic mixture of bizarrely nightmarish, comical and emotional moments it soon won the hearts of audiences and secured itself a permanent place in the operatic repertoire of the world’s theatres. General Music Director Fabio Luisi will be conducting this revival production; the title role will be sung by Bryan Hymel, and the three principal female roles will be performed by Jane Archibald, Rachel Harnisch and Veronica Simeoni.