Repertoire: The BEST and Not Quite BEST Recordings of "The Tales of Hoffmann"

[@LyleFrancisDelp]

I love this opera!! I was most fortunate to play pit for The Lyric Opera in Baltimore some years ago. A most memorable occasion.

[@WilsonWatt-q2e]

as lucky to have seen Sutherland with Domingo and Ramey in the principal male roles at the Lyric in Chicago. She was spectacular in the part and actually was quite effective dramatically. She used very different movement rhythms with each of the women so that they seemed different. Of course, her ability to actually sing all of the roles with enough voice in the proper technical approach made the experience marvelous.

[@robhaynes4410]

Wow, a new repertoire video! And it's an opera! And the opera is Hoffmann! This is one of the operas that turned me onto opera. My imprint version is Ozawa, which I still love. Indeed, the Nagano is amazing. Thanks so much for the effort that went into this one.

[@theonewhoknocks6353]

Thank you Dave for this most informative video.

[@ThomasDawkins88]

I'm one of those people who thinks that if it is possible (and it often isn't) one soprano should sing all of the heroines and one bass-baritone should sing all of the villains for the most dramatic impact. That said, only Sutherland and Sills really convince me in the very different soprano roles, Sutherland a little more vocally and Sills a little more dramatically. The settings and the details are different, but the story of each act is essentially the same: Hoffmann wants the girl, bass-baritone makes sure that Hoffmann can't get the girl. And the girls go from Olympia, who is so idealized that she's not even real to Antonia, the daddy's girl and consumptive singer that opera loves, to anything-but-pure Giulietta. If the casting is done well, I will happily listen to three women!

[@steveschwartz8944]

Thanks for this. I had no idea of the edition problems. I got the LP of the Sills, which I loved and was satisfied with. Sills and Treigle are amazing. However. I think it's time to update. Have bought the Nagano.

[@stephenlord9]

Dave - I conducted the world premiere of this TWICE. Once in Boston and then with even MORE in Santa Fe all with Michael Kaye (RIP) breathing down my neck. I finally said to him" I think you have dug up Offenbach's used loo paper and interpreted the dots."

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Wow!

[@markmiller3713]

I've never heard this opera. I'll have to give it a listen.

[@WesSmith-m6i]

Dear Dave, what a labor of love on your part to wade through all that turgid plot line to get us to some wonderful recordings. I totally agree with your bottom line being the best singers. My favorite of the ones I've heard is the Sutherland recording, although I have not yet heard the Alagna/Nagano recording. I will definitely do so! Thanks the for the recommendation and for the whole video. (Can't wait for what you do with Verdi's Don Carlo!) Wesley

[@roberthanff4354]

Thanks! Had no idea there were so many recordings of the opera. Only familiar with Bonynge and Rudel.

[@HugeOB]

I am a huge André Cluytens fan : His Contes d'Hoffmann has Bourvil as a bonus ! I also adore his early Carmen recording. Any ideas where I could find these as physical products, anyone ?

[@davidjanero3110]

I'd suggest the secondary market ( EBay etc.). I got both years ago at Tower Records (RIP) as EMI Reference CD sets, complete with libretti, session fotos, historical notes on the recording. Best of luck-- or should I say "bonne chance?"

[@morrigambist]

I am not up on this opera, having only the Bonynge set, but Huguette Tourangeau's muse is impossible to resist once you have heard her smoky speaking voice in the prologue.

[@BartBosman-abc]

I completely agree. Tourangeau was a fascinating singer. To my mind she blended with Sutherland just as well as Horne, although their voices were very different.

[@davidblackburn3396]

God how I love these tunes! After all, it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing. Who comes first, Giulietta or Antonia? I couldn't care less. One of my all time top ten evenings at the theatre was hearing Shicoff, Malfitano and Ramey at the Met back in '84 as they scampered around that marvelous Schneider-Siemssen set. As for recordings, and I've heard all but the oldest and the newest of the ones you mentioned, give me Sills, Treigle and Burrows. All three were never better.

[@gaborszilagyi5431]

Great video. It is true that Cambreling somehow lacks the energy and passion needed, but his recording is that long because they play the apocryphal parts as a bonus in an appendix. Quite interesting though.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Yes, I should have pointed that out. Thank you.

[@Tenortalker]

I particularly like the Burrows/ Sills / Treigle recording for the mixture of fine singing and characterization. However there are individual performances on each of the recordings mentioned that I could be very happy to listen to.

[@nicolasbrochet2147]

As good as Jessye Norman is in Antonia, even omitting the high note in the trio, I think she is unsurpassable as Giulietta. The most mesmerizing and thrilling enchantress you could imagine. You can truly believe anyone would give up their soul to her.

[@jeremytarter7557]

Could you do one for Die Fledermaus?

[@montanamontana80]

Can you make a video about the best 10 recordings of Brahms piano concerto No.2?

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Already done.

[@montanamontana80]

@DavesClassicalGuide You made about Brahms piano concerto sets

[@JasonSTL]

If anyone knows whether the Nagano recording is streaming anywhere, please share!

[@jujukoba6924]

Quobuz has it

[@fred6904]

Spotify has it.

[@UlfilasNZ]

I don't recommend it - Van Dam is better on the Levine recording, and Alagna is no Domingo.

[@ΒασίλειοςΚουτουλίδης]

Idagio also has it

[@abrain]

One of my favorites, in my top five, probably number 3 or 4. Seen it at the Met with Shicoff circa 1998, while his earlier Met performance from ten years earlier seems not to ever have been issued on video even though it was on PBS. First seen in Dallas 1982 when the Met used to tour in the spring. Also seen circa 1986 with Gedda in Houston. Soemwhere around here I have a video with Shicoff and there is a good video with Domingo. Wonder if Professor Hurwitz might add recommendations and reviews of operas incuding videos? As for the opportunities for innovation/experimentation, I have wondered if anyone has considered having Hoffman opt for Niklausse as a lover or at least a suggestion of that. It might offer some comic relief along the lines of the ending of the classic film SOME LIKE IT HOT.

[@jeffheller642]

If Im not mistaken your first video on the Mozart of the Champs-Elysees. Yea! Interesting to speculate, had he lived another decade, would Offenbach have turned out additional operas or returned to the operetta form he invented and handed off toJ. Strauss, Sullivan and Lehar. Would love to see a repertoire review of the operettas. Re: Hoffman, I agree, what matters most are the singers. Although there may come a time when one grows tired of a favorite singer as I did of Domingo for a while. Any case a good idea to get a version where the women are played by the same singer and one not, as they are two legit ways to achieve the same effect, imo . All told I have been happy with Bonynge and Tate and am curious to hear Rudel and Nagano.

[@DavidMWagner]

Guiraud/Choudens is my story and I’m sticking to it. That said, the version the Met currently uses has some good “discovered” additions, esp fleshing out the character of the Muse. I disfavor recordings like Tate’s bc Michael Kaye’s version of the Giullietta act is radically different from what I and earlier generations of HOFFMANN fans grew up with. “New” arias, yes. Ground-up re-write, no. My two faves are Cluytens 2 and Rudel.

[@bikejack1]

There was a brilliant 1951 film about Tales of Hoffmann conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham and available on DVD. I believe it is abridged and the singing not bad but the conducting by Beecham bristling. The film is by the same team that did Red Shoes. Sorry Dave I know discussion here is recordings on CD but just had to mention it. The plot is very difficult to follow in the film.

[@Tenortalker]

Kathleen Ferrier was originally asked to play Niklausse in that film , but she was not confident about appearing on camera and turned it down. She mentions it in a letter to her agents Ibbs and Tillet saying she doesn't know the part ' and would they be able to remove my curves?' The offer may have originated through her friend the American soprano Ann Ayars who sings Antonia in the film. In the end Monica Sinclair sang Niklausse, a fine , characterful performance as always with her.

[@dennischiapello7243]

Great delivery of "a mechanical goil." 😅 Makes me think Frank Loesser could have taken this on!

[@bjornjagerlund3793]

This is a case where the versions of the opera matters more than the singers, I think. I don’t think much of the discovered music adds much to the opera, except two pieces that really improve the opera. It’s the Muse aria in the prologue and the wonderful ensemble in the epilogue that ends the opera. So my favorite version would be the version used in the Gedda recording from the mid sixties with these two pieces added.

[@bbailey7818]

I also love the Muse's violin aria. Producers and conductors who want to banish Dapertutto's 'Scintille diamant' because it's an ersatz fabrication from Voyage dans la Lune should be banished themselves. It's a magnificent piece, great tune, and a bass baritone standard.

[@bjornjagerlund3793]

@ Yes, and the also the ”Septet” and the music from Ernest Guiraud who did a very good job providing music to the spoken parts.

[@grantparsons6205]

Amusingly, & testament to her high personal standards, Schwarzkopf in retirement spent some time petitioning EMI about the records she was unhappy with & wanted permanently deleted from the catalogue. Hoffmann was one of them. Understandably, her EMI representative pointed out that it sold well & that her colleagues might have a rather different view of the matter...

[@ER1CwC]

That’s a funny story. I am not a fan of Schwarzkopf, but I’m glad that she was self-aware. The others are pretty idiomatic for international singer standards, and she really isn’t. I think that Callas actually would have been an interesting choice, even though she was already in decline. Of course, she would have never agreed to share the stage with two other sopranos.

[@grantparsons6205]

@ER1CwC Personally, I don't mind her in this. She's not particularly idiomatic, but I can live with that. And whether you like her or not, she's always interesting.

[@Tenortalker]

@@grantparsons6205 Schwarzkopf was a very resourceful singer and so she makes her way through the role of Giulietta . I do think she was miscast. The role for her in Hoffmann in her younger years would have been Antonia and it is a shame she didn't record that early on. This Hoffman recording was from the time she was darkening her voice to take on roles such as Strauss' Ariadne, but that doesn't make her a plausible Giulietta vocally or dramatically. As you so rightly say she was always interesting though.

[@stephenlord9]

AND I also did Stella's "aria.!"

[@johnhoie-hj7cg]

The only recording I’m familiar with is the Sills/Burrows/Treigle version, which I own and love. The movie made with Robert Rounseville in the early 1950s is not up to the quality of the stage opera.

[@bbailey7818]

Dramatically, Hoffmann makes more logical sense with the Venice act last. But musically, which should count for something in opera, the Antonia act is far and away stronger than the rather patchy Venice act. That's why I think the opera should end with Antonia, saving Offenbach's strongest, most powerful act for the end. Add Nicklausse's violin aria to that act and the relatively recently discovered and beautiful finale to the Epilogue, and I'm happy. I love the Bonynge version and Decca recording even though Bonynge apparently thought the Venetian septet was authentic, though in the wrong place, and really a quartet for the Epilogue. The spoken dialogue really works an opera comique. Bacquier is fantastic. When Cambreling EMI was first issued, it had a huge cd booklet. Worth seeking out. The Venice act is huge and cluttered. But fun to hear a couple of times..