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The Real Tales of Hoffmann

Origin, History, and Restoration of an Operatic Masterpiece

Foreword by Placido Domingo
Genres: Opera
Format: Paperback / softback
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, MD, United States
Published: 17th May 2017
Dimensions: w 194mm h 285mm d 35mm
Weight: 1565g
ISBN-10: 144226084X
ISBN-13: 9781442260849
Barcode No: 9781442260849
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Synopsis
Of all operas in the standard repertory, none has had a more complicated genesis and textual history than Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann. Based on a highly successful 1851 play inspired by the short stories by the German Romantic writer E.T.A. Hoffmann, the work occupied the last decade of Offenbach's life. When he died in October 1880, the work was being rehearsed at the Opera-Comique. At once cut and rearranged, the work was performed from the start in versions that ignored the composer's final intentions. Only a few decades ago, when previously unavailable manuscripts came to light, it became possible to reconstitute the score in its real form. Vincent Giroud and Michael Kaye's The Real 'Tales of Hoffmann' tells the full story for the first time in English. After discussing how the work of Hoffmann became known and influential in France, the book includes little-known sources for the opera, especially the complete Barbier and Carre play, in French and English. It describes the genesis of the opera. The annotated libretto is published in full, with the variants, for the two versions of the opera: with spoken dialogue or recitatives. Essays explain what was done to the opera after Offenbach's death, from the 1881 Opera-Comique production to more recent restoration attempts. There is also a survey of Les contes d'Hoffmann in performance from the 1970s to the present, and supplementary information, including discography, filmography, and videography. The Real 'Tales of Hoffmann' is intended to appeal to anyone interested in the work, specialists or non-specialists. Audiences, musicologists and students of French opera and opera-comique will find it of particular interest, as will opera houses, conductors, singers, directors, and dramaturgs involved in performances of the opera.

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The Real 'Tales of Hoffmann' is a commendable collaboration of the opera historian par excellence, Vincent Giroud and Michael Kaye, who is something of a genius-a tireless researcher, an original thinker, a musicological historian unencumbered with prefabricated aesthetic prejudices-who has given the world rare, often revisionary, always profoundly valuable insights into the mind of Jacques Offenbach and the circuitous creation (also re-creation over time) of Les contes d'Hoffmann. They have earned unbridled admiration and gratitude from all who seek broadened horizons regarding the universal presentation of conventional, also unconventional, music and theater. -- Martin Bernheimer, Pulitzer Prize winning critic and New York correspondent for the Financial Times and Opera Magazine., New York correspondent for the Financial Times, editorial board member of Opera Magazine, and Pulitzer Prize-winning former music critic of the Los Angeles Times This scrupulously historical reconstitution of the origins and destiny of Les contes d'Hoffmann, perhaps the most misunderstood work in the operatic repertory, and certainly one of my favorite operas, will be a revelation to musicians and to everyone who has ever fallen under the spell of Offenbach's immortal masterpiece. -- Neil Shicoff, internationally renowned star-tenor and one of the 20th century's foremost interpreters of Hoffmann The authors of The Real 'Tales of Hoffmann' have performed an invaluable service to all opera theaters, audiences, and scholars by presenting in one volume so much information about Offenbach's masterpiece and important source material that is not readily available. Stage directors, designers, dramaturgs, conductors, and singers will also find the advice on choosing a version particularly illuminating. -- Ronny Dietrich, Dramaturg and Director of Publications of the Salzburg Festival (2012-2016)