AVA's "Tales of Hoffman'

When I walked into the Academy of Vocal Arts Saturday night, I was apprehensive about how I'd tolerate the "new" version of The Tales of Hoffman.

You see, I grew up with a traditional edition that scholars now discredit. The first production I saw starred a legendary cast with Richard Tucker as a golden-voiced Hoffman, Martial Singher as Hoffman's four adversaries, and Roberta Peters, Rise Stevens and Lucine Amara as Hoffman's unrequited loves. Later on I saw memorable performances with Nicolai Gedda, George London, Norman Treigle and various sopranos, including Beverly Sills, who sang all the leading ladies in one night.

But it was all bogus. As I discussed in an earlier BSR review of Hoffman (click here), some of that music, scholars later found, had been written by Offenbach for earlier projects; and other music wasn't composed by Offenbach at all.

Depressed, and ill with gout, Offenbach began work on the most serious opera of his career, The Tales of Hoffman, which described the life of a depressed and alcoholic writer. Offenbach surely would have revised his work as it went into rehearsal, but he died at the age of 61 after completing the piano score and some of the orchestration. Others changed the script and score and added new music

Musicologist Michael Kaye assembled what seems to be a definitive performing version, and it omits two of the old version's hit tunes— the bass-baritone aria "Scintille diamante" and the tango-like ensemble at the climax of the Venetian act— along with other well-known moments. Happily, the familiar barcarolle, "O nuit d'amour," remains in this version of the opera, just slightly re-arranged.

Tavern courtship

Because the Academy of Vocal Arts is a learning institution, it makes sense to teach students the edition that will be performed by companies worldwide in future years. Still, I was dubious before the performance started.

Yet the result was a dramatically improved story that also included melodious music to replace those old tunes that were expunged. The prologue in a tavern has been expanded to fill in back stories and provide motivations while introducing songs for Hoffman's rival Lindorf as well as for his Muse.

The scenes with a mechanical doll and with the fragile Antonia, who dies young, are largely untouched. Most affected is the third act, where Hoffman woos the courtesan Giulietta in Venice, and the epilogue back in the tavern.

The long-preferred close of the Venice scene showed the courtesan sailing away in a gondola, accompanied by her servant Pitichinaccio. But that scene was totally spurious. It's been radically and cleverly re-staged by director David Gately.

The "new" epilogue features vocal music by the opera star Stella, who previously had a non-singing walk-on, and an appearance together on stage by all four of Hoffman's elusive crushes. They are facets of unreachable love, but they're not the same person.

In conclusion, the Muse tells Hoffman to banish them from his thoughts and concentrate on his writing. And it works!

Newfound energy

Conductor Christofer Macatsoris elicited rich, romantic sounds from the orchestra. He maintained idiomatic pacing and a welcome energy to the duet for Antonia and Hoffman that sometimes, in other productions, turns slow and soppy.

Sean Arnold looked and sounded excellent in the beginning as a sympathetic and passionate Hoffman. William Davenport, who took the role when Arnold fell ill, is less experienced but owns a nice lyrical voice. His build reminds me of Pavarotti, while his voice is sweeter and less aggressive than Luciano's.

Chrystal Williams was a strong Muse and Niklausse, with rich mezzo tones. Scott Conner was magnetic as Hoffman's antagonists, Lindorf, Coppélius, Dr. Miracle and Dapertutto.

Maria Aleida looked adorable as the doll Olympia, and she interpolated some stunning extra-high notes. Other sopranos have thrown in octave leaps during the second chorus of the doll's song, and Rachele Gilmore in 2009 hit an A-flat, five notes above a high C. Aleida equaled that, and I've never heard any Olympia hit as many other stratospheric notes as she did. (To hear and see an excerpt, click here.)

In case you're wondering how a production could care about authenticity and then allow notes that Offenbach didn't write, I'd answer that it was the custom of Offenbach's time to write two identical stanzas and expect the performer to sing variations on the second go-round.

Only 25 students

Michelle Johnson sang well as Giulietta. Chloe Moore was a sweet Antonia who delivered a series of perfect trills as she died.

As a school with only 25 students, the AVA requires, and got, versatility from its singers. Others who shone in the cast were Patrick Guetti as Antonia's deep-toned father, Margaret Mezzacappa as the voice of Antonia's mother, who sings from within a picture frame (then Mezzacappa re-appears as a party girl on the banks of Venice's Grand Canal), and John Viscardi and Jeffrey Hallili, each in a variety of roles.

The AVA avoided Hoffman for years, possibly because it requires a chorus. Macatsoris solved this conundrum by using almost all of the school's resident artists as chorus and as extras. Twenty people or more filled the Helen Corning Warden Theatre's small stage during the tavern scene and the party scenes, adding a lusty fullness of sounds.♦


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