BWW Reviews: HOFFMANN is a Messy, but Enjoyable, Tale at the Met

Is there another staple of major opera houses that's as big a mess as LES CONTES D'HOFFMAN by Jacques Offenbach? If there is, I can't think of it--but it doesn't keep it from being wildly enjoyable in the right hands. The Met's current production is entertaining, but only in spite of itself.

There are no happy endings in this work. Hoffmann's (tenor Vittorio Grigolo) first tale of love unrequited is with a woman who is actually a doll (wonderful soprano Erin Morley)--and is torn to bits by the villain of the piece (baritone Thomas Hampson).

The second heroine (Russian soprano Hibla Gerzmava) sings herself to death, tricked by the villain in another guise, while the third (mezzo Christine Rice as the courtesan) floats off in a gondola with a dwarf. Finally, the opera star (Gerzmava again) who sets the story in motion enters the tavern where Hoffmann has been drinking and doesn't know he's alive. The closest Hoffmann gets to love is with his friend Nicklausse (excellent mezzo Kate Lindsey), who is really his muse in disguise.

No definitive version

Left unfinished at Offenbach's death, there is no one definitive version of the score--which gives directors free rein to go overboard. Broadway's Bartlett Sher, who did such a good job with the Met's BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA by keeping things simple, went in the opposite direction here and two of the three tales are so overpopulated that it detracts from the opera's charms. Stage director Gina Lapinski couldn't bring it down to size. Set designer Michael Yeargan and costume designer Catherine Zuber--who have done such stellar work elsewhere--along with lighting designer James F. Ingalls and choreographer Dou Dou Huang carried out Sher's vision, for better or worse.

One for all?

When the Met first disclosed the lineup from this season, soprano Gerzmava was announced to sing all the opera's heroines. Luckily, someone must have actually listened to her and decided that she should stick to only one, Antonia.

This is the section that I thought was most effective, with the production at its least complicated, though I missed the portrait of Antonia's mother (along with the fireplace through which Dr. Miracle made his entrance in the last production). Before the character actually sings herself to death through the encouragement of Miracle, Gerzmava did some exciting singing, but I can't imagine what she would have done with "The Doll's Aria," sung by the mechanical Olympia.

A smack-up job

Luckily, Olympia's "Les oiseaux dans la charmille" was put in the hands of soprano Morley, who did a smack-up job of it. Yet, there is so much business going on, it didn't really give her a chance to breathe. When the soprano did the high-flying aria in Central Park two summers ago, with simply a piano and someone to wind her up when her clockworks ran down (as specified in the score), she was spectacular. As Giulietta,

As Hoffmann, Grigolo more than fit the bill. More often than not, he has been over the top (his BOHEME!), but this time around, he seemed to have founded the right balance, so that the audience felt his pain as he loses one love after another. He was in pretty good voice for the evening, though I believe he has yet to live up to his early designation as "Pavarottino" (little Pavarotti). The other male lead, Hampson--as Lindorf, Coppelius, Dr. Miracle and Dappertutto--didn't seem right for the role, using the same bag of sneers and laughs and unable to differentiate the four characters very well. Usually sung by a bass, the baritone's voice didn't suit the music very well, either.

The Met orchestra was in fine form under conductor Yves Abel and helped propel the performance along. They have broad shoulders--but they can't fully carry a production that misses its mark over and over.

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Photo: Erin Morley as Olympia and Vittorio Grigolo as Hoffmann

Photo by Marty Sohl/Metropolitan Opera

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