The Tales of Hoffman – REVIEW
Image: The Tales of Hoffmann - Sydney, 2023 Iain Henderson as Spalanzani, Jessica Pratt as Olympia and the Opera Australia Chorus in Opera Australia's 2023 production of The Tales of Hoffmann at the Sydney Opera House Photo Credit/ Keith Saunders.jpeg
Opera Australia’s current production of The Tales Of Hoffman is wonderfully playful, filled with quirky little surprises and exquisite vocal performances. This being a collaboration between four international companies and featuring a celebrated guest director, the expectations were high and, it’s fair to say, have been met.
Opera Australia, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Opera National de Lyon and Fondazione Teatro La Fenice di Venezia have combined their immense operatic forces behind this stunning production of Jacques Offenbach’s epic final work. Italian director, Damiano Michieletto, who has received world-wide acclaim for his imaginative interpretations, has certainly lived up to that fame.
The Tales Of Hoffman is an opera fantastique, which means it blends elements of romance, science fiction, fantasy, and supernatural while retaining a distinct French sensibility.
The plot is an assembly of four short stories by German gothic/fantasy writer Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann. Hoffman is fictionalised as a the central character and quasi narrator in Offenbach’s opera.
The opera begins in a tavern, where a dishevelled, tired-looking Hoffman (sung by Iván Ayón Rivas) is attempting to medicate his woes with absinthe. Implored by the other patrons to regale them with a tale, Hoffman launches into his marvellous narratives, each with himself as the leading man vying for the affection of a particular woman.
The four female leads: Olympia, Antonia, Giulietta, Stella are often played by different singers, but in rare instances, when an extraordinary artist is available, the roles are all sung by the one soprano. For this production, audiences are blessed with the other-worldly voice of home-grown international diva, Jessica Pratt.
Pratt’s stunning rendition of “Les Oiseaux Dans La Charmille” (The Birds In The Bower) as Olympia draws a very lengthy and loud applause which would have been a standing ovation if most of the audience wasn’t encumbered by miscellany on their laps and those aggressively springy seats.
Also taking on four roles is Marko Mimica. He is the villain in each story, respectively: Coppelius, Dapertutto, Dr Miracle and Lindorf.
Agnes Sarkis is delightful as Hoffman’s trusty companion, Nicklausse, a type of Shakespearean fool character. The stuffed but realistic macaw that is a kind of familiar, adds some humour to the role.
Sian Sharp makes intermittent appearances as the Muse, resplendent is shimmering green dress with large Mary Poppins-styled carpet bag in matching green fabric.
Iain Henderson is notable for his appearance as the mad-professor inventor, Spalanzani.
The design is inspired, with a stark, blank-walled tavern in the opening scene giving way to a surreal classroom, a music room, and a ballroom, each with contrivances and devices that enhance the fantasy element. Cut out rooms in the walls at different levels add to the surrealism.
The costumes are dazzling with a mix of fairytale, camp, classic, pop culture, and pure invention in the designs.
There is a troupe of young female ballet dancers in a very funny scene with a rather stereo-typed effeminate male ballet instructor; acrobats in green absinthe-fairy costumes; devils in slick, glittery purple body suits.
The chorus gets to have lots of fun, being mischievous school students, bawdy revellers, pretentious masque attendees.
It’s a longish opera, but the pace, design and sheer virtuosity of the performances, especially from Pratt, make it an easy and pleasant journey.
