After Hoffmann
Well, the opera was amazing, just absolutely amazing. The building is gorgeous on the outside (except the west side, part of which is being restored), but it is especially gorgeous on the inside! The procedure for buying standing room tickets is nice and streamlined.....the line starts inside and the tickets seem to go on sale a little more than an hour before the performance. We got there at 5:20 for a 7:00 show, and we got great spots....it costs €3.50 for orchestra level spots, and €2.00 for balcony spots. Unlike the Met, the standing room spots on the orchestra level are not under the eave, so one can actually see the whole stage....plus the house is relatively small and acoustically great! I was worried about getting spots together, but I forgot that you can just go to wherever you want and tie a scarf around your spot. We got spots in the fifth row of railings.
The opera itself with also incredible! Here's a breakdown:
Prologue: good, although Hoffmann was a bit honky and the offstage chorus was behind...things were cut/truncated....the "respect for the bald ones" thing was gone entirely....and not missed, I'm sure. The muse did her speech as a recit, and she has a great voice!
1st act (Olympia) was very interesting....the set had a huge eyeball in an old-fashioned camera thing on stage right and a giant skeleton on stage left, and in the center was the box where Olympia was. This box had a little rotating platform on it, so when Splanzani is first showing her off and when she dances with Hoffmann she rotates like a doll on showcase. The stage had a relatively steep rake, and there is a sloped ceiling which, with the walls and the rake, connected to a single fake vanishing point, thus creating an illusion of a far-reaching space upstage. In the 1st and 3rd acts, the chorus sang from the top of the walls, in a small-looking space between the top of the wall and the ceiling. I didn't explain that very well, but it's the best I can do so late at night. The costumes were pretty good....and Olympia! Wow she was great. High note: F#, and the second verse was a real free-for-all in terms of embellishment.....she really went all-out. I think the guy who played Lindorf was at his best in the first act, but mayhaps I'm just partial to the character of Copéllius. In any case, it was amazing. Little men in beekeeper outfits dancing the waltz...what more could you want?
2nd act (Antonia) Well, Crespel was awesome, but good basses are always awesome. Hoffmann was not as good as the first act, but not as honky as he was in the prologue. Fritz outdid himself in his aria (for God's sake, he was swinging on the chandelier!), and Dr. Miracle also played a very convincing (and chilling) role. The woman who played the mother was also amazing.....perhaps the second best female voice in the cast, next to Nicklauss. As for Antonia, she was OK. She was really quite good, but there were a few moments where she just didn't make it happen for me. Some of them may have been intentional, what with her character's problems with singing in the plot, but part of it was that I just didn't really like her voice. The staging took a strange turn here, also, what with the addition of a random supernumerary who was supposed to be Antonia as a child, I guess....I don't know, she kept popping up. Also, there was a huge piano which people kept playing (and it magically sounded like a full orchestra....ha ha ha) and when Miracle talks to Antonia alone he came out of the piano, which was an interesting move.
3rd act (Giulietta) I never realized how short this act was! After the barcarolle, Giulietta started making out with Nicklauss....yea it was hot. The set was simple...just some gondolas which rolled out and back again after the act, and a huge-ass askew mirror on stage right. What's-his-name....bad guy....yea he was in a wheelchair, and Schlemiel was dressed all in white and a baldcap.
Epilogue: Amazing. They did the final chorus "while in love you may grow" thing, and the staging was incredible. Gradually characters and chorus members from each act gather on stage as the muse sings to Hoffmann, who is writing at a desk. This culminated in the three women placing their respective symbols together in the center of the stage: a plastic arm for Olympia, a rose for Antonia, and a mirror for Giulietta. The final chorus was just amazing....I haven't heard it in years, and it was great to hear it again.
After the opera we went to a little cafe, where I paid €2.10 for a mineral water. (almost 2/3 of the price that a paid to see a 3.5 hour opera....yeah) After sitting there for about a half an hour or so we left, and I came home to an empty apartment. I'm going to go to bed now.....I really look forward to sleeping in tomorrow, since I don't have to be anywhere before the bus tour of the city at 12:00. Yay for sleep!
The opera itself with also incredible! Here's a breakdown:
Prologue: good, although Hoffmann was a bit honky and the offstage chorus was behind...things were cut/truncated....the "respect for the bald ones" thing was gone entirely....and not missed, I'm sure. The muse did her speech as a recit, and she has a great voice!
1st act (Olympia) was very interesting....the set had a huge eyeball in an old-fashioned camera thing on stage right and a giant skeleton on stage left, and in the center was the box where Olympia was. This box had a little rotating platform on it, so when Splanzani is first showing her off and when she dances with Hoffmann she rotates like a doll on showcase. The stage had a relatively steep rake, and there is a sloped ceiling which, with the walls and the rake, connected to a single fake vanishing point, thus creating an illusion of a far-reaching space upstage. In the 1st and 3rd acts, the chorus sang from the top of the walls, in a small-looking space between the top of the wall and the ceiling. I didn't explain that very well, but it's the best I can do so late at night. The costumes were pretty good....and Olympia! Wow she was great. High note: F#, and the second verse was a real free-for-all in terms of embellishment.....she really went all-out. I think the guy who played Lindorf was at his best in the first act, but mayhaps I'm just partial to the character of Copéllius. In any case, it was amazing. Little men in beekeeper outfits dancing the waltz...what more could you want?
2nd act (Antonia) Well, Crespel was awesome, but good basses are always awesome. Hoffmann was not as good as the first act, but not as honky as he was in the prologue. Fritz outdid himself in his aria (for God's sake, he was swinging on the chandelier!), and Dr. Miracle also played a very convincing (and chilling) role. The woman who played the mother was also amazing.....perhaps the second best female voice in the cast, next to Nicklauss. As for Antonia, she was OK. She was really quite good, but there were a few moments where she just didn't make it happen for me. Some of them may have been intentional, what with her character's problems with singing in the plot, but part of it was that I just didn't really like her voice. The staging took a strange turn here, also, what with the addition of a random supernumerary who was supposed to be Antonia as a child, I guess....I don't know, she kept popping up. Also, there was a huge piano which people kept playing (and it magically sounded like a full orchestra....ha ha ha) and when Miracle talks to Antonia alone he came out of the piano, which was an interesting move.
3rd act (Giulietta) I never realized how short this act was! After the barcarolle, Giulietta started making out with Nicklauss....yea it was hot. The set was simple...just some gondolas which rolled out and back again after the act, and a huge-ass askew mirror on stage right. What's-his-name....bad guy....yea he was in a wheelchair, and Schlemiel was dressed all in white and a baldcap.
Epilogue: Amazing. They did the final chorus "while in love you may grow" thing, and the staging was incredible. Gradually characters and chorus members from each act gather on stage as the muse sings to Hoffmann, who is writing at a desk. This culminated in the three women placing their respective symbols together in the center of the stage: a plastic arm for Olympia, a rose for Antonia, and a mirror for Giulietta. The final chorus was just amazing....I haven't heard it in years, and it was great to hear it again.
After the opera we went to a little cafe, where I paid €2.10 for a mineral water. (almost 2/3 of the price that a paid to see a 3.5 hour opera....yeah) After sitting there for about a half an hour or so we left, and I came home to an empty apartment. I'm going to go to bed now.....I really look forward to sleeping in tomorrow, since I don't have to be anywhere before the bus tour of the city at 12:00. Yay for sleep!
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