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Les Contes d'Hoffmann

Jacques Offenbach
Opéra fantastique in five acts
Libretto by Jules Barbier
In French with German and English surtitles
Events and Tickets
Close-up of a middle-aged man against a black background with a cinematic look and warm lighting: With short, tousled brown hair, he lies on a water-covered floor, looking toward the viewer. He wears a white shirt, and his face and upper body are reflected in the dark surface of the water. His expression appears exhausted and introspective; the scene conveys an atmosphere of reflection and inner turmoil. The scene evokes the figure of Hoffmann from Jacques Offenbach’s opera The Tales of Hoffmann.
The Tales of Hoffmann by Jacques Offenbach © Teresa Rothwangl
Abstract, atmospheric image in cool blue and warm rose tones: soft color gradients and blurred transitions create a dreamlike mood, evoking the world of The Tales of Hoffmann by Jacques Offenbach.
Opéra fantastique in five acts
Libretto by Jules Barbier
In French with German and English surtitles
Events and Tickets

Description

What do we long for when we love? And can another person ever truly recognize our deepest desires – let alone fulfill them?

The poet, composer, and illustrator E. T. A. Hoffmann delved into our longings, dreams, and abysses like no other. In LES CONTES D'HOFFMANN, he himself becomes the main character: an artist caught between fantasy and reality, between intoxication and disillusionment. Whom does Hoffmann wish to love? Olympia, the perfect yet soulless doll? Antonia, the fragile singer whose art is fatally bound to her life? Or Giulietta, the seductive courtesan who turns love into a commodity? Or is he simply searching for himself in all of this?

Time and again, Hoffmann encounters dark adversaries: characters who manipulate, seduce, and destroy, and who at the same time mirror his inner conflicts. Love becomes a projection screen, art an attempt at salvation, and failure a prerequisite for insight.

Jacques Offenbach, the Cologne-born master of irony and pleasure, knew life – and its darker sides. With LES CONTES D'HOFFMANN he created a unique work that moves between grand opera, operetta-like exuberance, and Romantic gothic tale. His final, unfinished opera is a dazzling play of identities, illusions, and projections. The three love stories appear as variations of one and the same longing – and as stages in the life of an artist who fails in love and transforms that failure into art.

participants

Inszenierung, Bühne und Kostüme

Licht

Dramaturgie

Chorleitung

cast

Musikalische Leitung

Hoffmann

Lindorf / Coppélius / Miracle / Dapertutto

Die Muse / Nicklausse / Stimme der Mutter

Andrès / Cochenille / Franz / Pitichinaccio

Olympia

Antonia

Giulietta

Spalanzani

Crespel

Nathanael

Schlémil

Hermann

Luther

Chor

Statisterie

Orchester

Please refer to the respective event listings for the current cast.

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On est grand par l’amour et plus grand par les pleurs.

en.: We are great through love – and greater still through tears. – The Muse

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Durch eine leicht geöffnete Tür fällt der Blick in den Zuschauerraum der Oper Köln am Offenbachplatz. Im Vordergrund ist die Tür mit Griff zu sehen, dahinter öffnen sich gestaffelte Sitzreihen und Ränge, die die Tiefe und Architektur des Saals erahnen lassen.