Last night we watched a performance of Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann that was recorded in 2006. We've seen "Tales" on stage in a couple of places, and it was featured last season on the "Live from the Met in HD" productions at movie theaters. I have to say that this performance from Bilbao was every bit as good as the one from the Met.
Here's an excerpt from an interesting review I found online:
Giancarlo del Monaco’s production of Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann recorded in Bilbao in 2006 isn’t nearly as weird as the interviews on the first disk might lead one to expect. It has its moments but in many ways is more “by the book” than the a production I looked at last week. The interviews talk of a “Sartrian” Hoffmann and a Freudian approach to Antonia. Ok so Hoffmann is portrayed as a hunchback and he’s fairly damaged but he’s basically your standard drunk poet fixated on a woman or women he can’t have. I can’t actually see this dude nailing his hand to a nightclub table with a knife or drowning his cat to prove a point.
The Prologue really does prefigure what’s to come. The chorus is lively and loud, as is the orchestra under Alain Guingal. Katharine Goeldner’s Nicklausse is perhaps best described as fruity and Aquiles Machado is quite a dramatic Hoffmann, even if his French diction leaves a bit to be desired. To round things out Konstantin Gorny’s Lindorff is more bass than baritone and sounds diabolically sepulchral. This goes on throughout. It’s big and bold and, in a way, not very French (if you equate Frenchness with a kind of effete refinement). The sound quality on the recording complements this very well being quite lush (DTS and stereo both). As one might expect in such a reading Kleinzach gets the full on treatment. I’m not sure it’s quite what Offenbach had in mind but I liked it.
The above excerpts are from a web site called "Operaramblings."
We enjoyed the singing. Tenor Aquiles Machado was in fine voice as Hoffmann, and the four principal female roles (the muse; Olympia; Giulietta; and Antonia) were very good. It was refreshing to see great sopranos on stage that did NOT weigh 250 pounds each
As usual with any good Hoffmann production, the performance of Olympia stole the show.
The lady in the above photo (Giulietta) is sitting on a grand piano. At some point during the performance, various singers climbed up on top of the piano to sing. It struck me as kind of odd, but it didn't detract from the singing.
It was as good a performance of "Tales" as I've ever seen, and my partner and I both recommend it highly.
https://www.amazon.com/Offenbach-Contes-dHoffmann-Giancarlo-Subtitled/dp/B00V40O420/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1467566465&sr=8-1&keywords=tales+of+hoffmann+++bilbao
The concert hall itself was quite interesting:
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