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Tales of Hoffmann - suitable for newcomers to opera?


Blossom

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Contemplating booking given the offer and availability of preferred seats.

Any thoughts on whether this is relatively easygoing for newcomers to opera- and if possible thoughts on the creative team for the new production?

 

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Musically I'd say it's highly suitable, though of course we have no idea what the new production will be like.  Personally I find past form is no indicator of how good or bad a new production is likely to be.

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16 minutes ago, MAB said:

Musically I'd say it's highly suitable, though of course we have no idea what the new production will be like.  Personally I find past form is no indicator of how good or bad a new production is likely to be.

I think I may wait to see the reviews in that case…

From the few pictures I have seen of the new production vs old, it feels like there has been a massive leap towards a more modern setting which doesn’t necessarily appeal.

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If it was still the Schlesinger production then I'd absolutely say yes but goodness only knows what the new production will be like. I'm waiting for the reviews before I decide whether or not to see it but I can't say the pictures being used for advertising bode well for me. In terms of suitability for newcomers, it is a long opera so I'd make sure that they're happy with over 3 and a half hours running time.

 

Edit Sorry Blossom, I just cross-posted with your second post so my post is rather redundant now.

Edited by Dawnstar
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Part of the brilliance that is Tales of Hoffmann lies in the way it moves between opera and operetta, without ever being simply ‘light’. Which is another way of saying, although it’s long it’s a fun piece with a lot of good tunes and crowd-pleasing elements.

 

Who knows about the new production, though, we’ll have to see. Modern directors can squeeze the joy out of anything, sometimes without even trying. I saw a Fledermaus at the Salzburg Festival…don’t ask.

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6 hours ago, Blossom said:

Contemplating booking given the offer and availability of preferred seats.

Any thoughts on whether this is relatively easygoing for newcomers to opera- and if possible thoughts on the creative team for the new production?

 


I personally wouldn't have chosen this as a starter for 10 opera... especially since La Traviata, Marriage of Figaro and Tosca have recently had near identical offers and I think they would be more suitable. 

Edited by JaneHartley
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Oh and if one picks the right night, both Juan Diego Flórez and Ermonela Jaho are cast. These are international stars with extraordinary voices and great stage presence, just the sort of casting that can get a person hooked on opera for life. 

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(In fact I have just grabbed another ticket, using the offer, which only works if one follows the rules exactly - OLYMPIA30, the other one didn’t work for me, applied before choosing seats, and then selecting the offer price after choosing seats)

 

Edited by Geoff
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22 hours ago, Blossom said:

Contemplating booking given the offer and availability of preferred seats.

Any thoughts on whether this is relatively easygoing for newcomers to opera- and if possible thoughts on the creative team for the new production?

 

Same as what others have said - the music and arias are good (you'll recognise the famous Barcarolle) but the new production.... we will have to wait for reviews (and photos) to get some idea. The casting looks good though. 

Edited by Emeralds
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It's interesting that ticket sales are poor despite the presence in Florez in the cast. I can remember when he used to pretty much sell out the ROH the day booking opened, even for more obscure bel canto works such as Mathilde de Shabran (which I saw & very much enjoyed, a pity it never got revived). Evidently his star appeal has waned somewhat.

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Original ticket prices are far, far too expensive, especially when Damiano Michieletto is known for having the most drab sets and  unflattering,ugly costumes - think 70s cast offs that even charity shops can't sell at 50p! He doesn't tend to ruin the libretto too much although he too likes adding his own little extrapolations that are against the composers' original intentions. 

 

The listening seats in the slips are pretty much all sold out though- both affordable as well as not having to look at any potentially ugly designs! £300 as top price for the attractive previous  production with Ermonela Jaho and Juan Diego Florez (although Leonard Caimi does replace Florez on 15, 18, 21 Nov) would have been conceivable, but not with Michieletto directing the new version. I don't know why they are replacing a good  production with one that's likely to look worse. I have booked a seat very very far away....haha. Would have bought Upper/Lower slips but my friend finds them too uncomfortable so we picked the next furthest away. 

Edited by Emeralds
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1 hour ago, Dawnstar said:

It's interesting that ticket sales are poor despite the presence in Florez in the cast. I can remember when he used to pretty much sell out the ROH the day booking opened, even for more obscure bel canto works such as Mathilde de Shabran (which I saw & very much enjoyed, a pity it never got revived). Evidently his star appeal has waned somewhat.

 

It seems obvious to me that people would more readily fork out for Florez in obscure bel canto than something like Hoffmann. Of course he's a very good singer all round but what made him really special was his facility and sheer timbre in the very difficult bel canto rep. I'm not blaming him for moving on - it's understandable for several reasons! - but his fame is/was inextricably linked with the stuff he made his name in.

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10 hours ago, Lizbie1 said:

 

It seems obvious to me that people would more readily fork out for Florez in obscure bel canto than something like Hoffmann. Of course he's a very good singer all round but what made him really special was his facility and sheer timbre in the very difficult bel canto rep. I'm not blaming him for moving on - it's understandable for several reasons! - but his fame is/was inextricably linked with the stuff he made his name in.


Agreed. Added to which, I’m not sure that anyone could sell out on opening booking day any more, even with the most aesthetically pleasing production. 
Just glad that we’re not having a new Turandot this time round. 

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I agree with Emerald's comments regarding pricing.  There is a limit to what regular opera goers can afford.  Fidelio had swathes of empty seats despite having very good singers and a not too awful production.  Very sad.

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On 24/10/2024 at 07:58, Geoff said:

(In fact I have just grabbed another ticket, using the offer, which only works if one follows the rules exactly - OLYMPIA30, the other one didn’t work for me, applied before choosing seats, and then selecting the offer price after choosing seats)

 

 

Apologies HOFFMANN30 was the other one (although both give the same discount!)

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On 25/10/2024 at 14:52, JaneHartley said:

Apologies HOFFMANN30 was the other one

Jane, what do you mean by "was the other one"? a different offer for a different opera? Super thanks for highlighting the Olympia, which worked! 

 

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On 29/10/2024 at 14:21, Cayetana said:

Jane, what do you mean by "was the other one"? a different offer for a different opera? Super thanks for highlighting the Olympia, which worked! 

 


There are two identical offers for Hoffmann - I assume RBO has put them out through two different platforms, so they can monitor uptake of the offer and effectiveness of their campaign so there is: HOFFMANN30 and OLYMPIA30 for the same opera and the same discount. The comment you quoted was because someone said the one code didn't work, and that was because I accidentally typed it originally with just one 'N'. 

 

Sorry for not being clear but seems like you got the discount anyway!

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Just to say, the Insight event on this new production is still online:

 

https://www.youtube.com/live/asK1gUV9S2Q?si=JxLrsq4dBuN34txV

 

The event offers a taste of the music, with a fair number of the singers performing. Also there are some brief glimpses of the production, which does not look like a great improvement on the much loved John Schlesinger show (but perhaps the scenery was falling apart so they had to do something new). 

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Beautiful singing from Julie Boulianne (at 20 minutes 30 seconds in) and  Ermonela Jaho (at 45minutes in) at the Insight event! Juan Diego Florez has posted a few photos of the production on his official page and the company have posted some on their page too: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/15jCcV9E1z/

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Du964FHjH/

Doesn't look as normcore/drab as the Carmen and Cav/Pag designs although there's already some dissatisfaction/ discussion about the shorts for Hoffmann in one scene and the (ahem) quirky feather costume for Nicklausse in another. 

 

Don't know how drastically Michieletto has changed the libretto for this one though! 

Edited by Emeralds
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11 hours ago, Emeralds said:

Don't know how drastically Michieletto has changed the libretto for this one though! 


Fairly drastically all round, not least in giving Antonia the backstory of a dancer rather than a singer; in the introduction of sprites and devils and recitative in the tavern scenes that was certainly new to me; and in removing pretty much any reference to Venice in the Venetian scene. 

The audience and the critics alike seemed to love it. I didn’t. I found the antics of the sprites and devils, along with the incarnation of Nicklausse as a parrot, embarrassingly juvenile (poor Julie Boulianne having to suffer the indignity of that ridiculous, unflattering costume from start to finish). I didn’t like the neon-lit boxes that housed the various characters in all but the opening and closing scenes, nor the by now customary proliferation of wooden canteen/schoolroom chairs in the opening tavern scene.

 

Yes, the naughty ballet school children were very cute but what was the point of turning Antonia into a dancer when the cause of her death was making her sing again? And despite his pedigree, I thought that Juan Diego Florez was miscast as Hoffmann - too pingy a tenor, particularly in the weightier scenes, and especially when set against the power of Alex Esposito’s Lindorf/Coppelius/Dr Miracle and Dappertutto.
 

And why did Christine Rice need to carry that enormous carpet bag around with her everywhere she traipsed?

 

I may well be a lone voice in the wilderness but, sorry, it wasn’t for me. 

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I saw the General rehearsal and found the production mostly tedious, like a poor copy of the sort of exciting shows we used to get at the ENO forty years ago. By the Venice act I was too bored and cross to concentrate properly. Others around me had left by then. 

 

My main problem was Michieletto again showing that he has no respect for music and musicians, in that his direction and the designs he works with can be singularly unhelpful to fine singers trying their best to do a good job. His William Tell was set on some kind of dull dark soil, which had the effect of deadening the acoustic and making even the liveliest singing sound uninteresting. Here in Hoffmann he uses that cliché of current opera production, enormous flat scenery, which absorbs sound very effectively. even more so when the director places singers near it towards the back of the stage. 

 

Worse even than that, he makes the wonderful international star Ermonela Jaho sing her first aria from inside a box, which is placed to the side of the stage and nearly in the wings. The dancing children were sweet - @Scheherezade is right however that the dancer conceit makes nonsense of the story - but even their comedy could not soften me after the disgrace of a great star being treated this badly. One of Jaho's many special qualities is to be able to hold her audience gripped, but the Amphi audience coughed throughout her performance (a notable offender in row H didn't think to muffle the sound with a sleeve or a handkerchief. never mind go out for water) It is the first time I have heard a Jaho audience do anything other than sit totally focussed and silent, no wonder she looked unhappy at the curtain call. She sang beautifully but was prevented from reaching people as she usually can. As I say, a disgrace. 

 

No doubt people like the show. That's what it's there for. But like Richard Jones's lamentable Bohème (and other recent ROH/RBO efforts) the production is less than it could have been, should have been, and (at the risk of sounding 20th century) used to be. 
 

Edited by Geoff
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