Metropolitan Opera broadcasted LIVE new production "Tales of Hoffman" by Bartlett Sher sans nudity

The award winning Bartlett Sher directed the stunning and sexy new production of Tales of Hoffman at the Met, which broadcast the production live around the world in HD on Saturday morning.  One of the most compelling features of the simulcasts continues to be the live interviews backstage by a well known opera singer.  You see the chemistry or lack of it, the conflicts of interest.  Director Sher said during the live interview backstage with challenging host Debra Voight, that he distinguishes the Hoffman character as open and warm although the composer based his opera on another alienated German Jew, Kafka.   Voight asked some challenging questions, even of Anna Netrebko.

Here is the preview with a slideshow with Anna Netrebko.  She performed the roles of Stella and of Antonia, pictured above with villain Alan Held.

US Encore: Wednesday, January 6, 2010 (6:30 PM local time)
Canada Encore: January 23, 2010, 1 pm
Expected Running time: 4 hours, 2 minutes, 2 intermissions
 

The costumes including the sexy Carnival party and choreography could be a show in themselves but the Met chose not to broadcast the nudity.  Similarly I remember San Francisco, just before going live for the simulcast of Rigoletto a few years ago, removing the nipples from all the courtesans at the Carnival party.  The Met simulcast hosts always says there’s nothing like coming to the opera house. However, the Met’s live broadcast in HD looked and sounded perfect.

In any event. Sher said he picked Hoffman because it’s weird, strange, a lot of fun and he loved the narrative. Sher says he’s interested in why the composer, Offenbach, picked this material. It’s Kafka, Fellini, “8 ½” where the artist couldn’t make a film so he obsesses over women. Sher sees the intersection of women and creativity. He unifies the pieces through the prologue and the state he’s in. The opera is located in the tavern and we stay with him and the muse. We get inside the muse and Stella. The costumes help continuity.

Sher says Calleja [the tenor singing Hoffman for the first time] has a warm and open tone. It’s not dark and creepy. That’s what leads him into the openness of a great poet.

Regarding the direction of opera and of theater, time is the difference. Time to perfect, he says. Suddenly Anna Netrebko had taken her place on stage and was horsing around in the doorframe, dancing with her sheer scarf like it was a dance of the seven veils.

According to the Met’s webpage,

In bringing his vision of Hoffmann to the stage, Sher found inspiration in the life and works of author Franz Kafka—another German Jew, living in Prague. In both E.T.A. Hoffmann and Kafka’s work, sinister, shadowy powers haunt the lead characters. And in each of Hoffmann’s tales that make up the opera’s three acts, the protagonist tries to break into what seems to be a closed world. The character’s dilemma is the same as Kafka’s and Offenbach’s, Sher explains: “It’s a matter of how an artist can feel accepted and rejected at the same time.”

Musings on Kate

Kate Lindsey the mezzo sings the role of Hoffman’s muse and friend Nicklausse. She remains the current relationship. Her job is to keep him away from counterproductive although stimulating love interests and focus him on his creativity. Is that the job of a muse? She is not passive, a sexual obsession like the others. She does give him enough rope to hang himself. Funny when she mimics the doll and chastises Hoffman for not learning his lesson; Nicklausse hits those dolly high notes like the Queen of the Night to prove her point.

That camera that points at her straight up from the pit makes her loom larger than life. I see her as more Tinkerbell size.  She sings with a smooth-as-glass mezzo, mirrored by her delicate bone structure and perfect skin and teeth.  Her feminine sexuality shined through in the flesh-toned negligee but in her suit as Nicklausse it was suppressed.  Those costumes are effective indeed.

Note that hand-held camera in the pit.  Isn't that just the weirdest camera, often skipping across the line of talent at dizzying speed when they take their bows. Where was it when the nudity happened?

Meat and potatoes, stay hydrated; Marlene Dietrich on Youtube

Kate told Debra Voight the way to insure she had the stamina and mental focus for the role is meat and potatos. Alan Held, who plays the four villains, says he stays hydrated.

Kate modeled her character on the androgynous Marlene Dietrich. She watched Youtube clips to help with movements. However, it’s the costumes, said Kate.

Alan said he has done Hoffman ten times. The difference is the directors’ concept.

Does the muse help or hurt Hoffman, asks Voight, as if those are the only choices, black or white. Kate sees Hoffman as on the edge of a cliff, so who better to give him a little push? She needs to be there, says Kate, to make him the most sublime artist.

The audience in San Francisco laughed and hissed when Voight then went into her sales pitch for the Met opera shop, pushing her necklace as having Swarovski crystals from the chandelier.

The living doll Olympia

About buying trinkets. The ballet dancing doll. It was an odd Nutcracker kind of fantasy deviation in style from the rest of the production. Kim did say the pyrotechnics of her coloratura were easier with the movements. She practiced in front of a mirror.

Then again the innocent, asexual doll sequence is like the others, in that it's Hoffman’s psyche coming to life. It doesn’t have to be linear. However since this production contained nudity and the sexiest, cabaret like party scene in opera ever at the end, I would imagine Natalie Dessay’s French bride version of the doll would have been perfection. Nobody comes close to Natalie and her farmer’s daughter role in the hay.

Here’s the link:  Natalie Dessay's Olympia.

 I am obsessed with it. She is so clearly in on the joke and not just playing a role.

Matinee, gentlemen?

About Dou Dou Huang’s choreography. The China doll was funny when she acted her most girlish or childlike, hopping up and down in place like an excited toddler.

That tutu looked impossibly pink. I did wonder about racial stereotyping in casting an Asian as a doll and sex object. Yes Kim sang so perfectly and looked like a perfect doll, she was a joy to behold. Yet she did seem cool and expressionless not just mechanical. About the racial stereotyping, was she in on the joke? I do often see young Asian women on the arm of white men at the opera, the symphony and the theater in San Francisco. Often the white men are middle aged, obese, balding and not only twice the age but twice the size of the doll on their arm. I’ve seen a ninety pound girl at the opera in the lobby on a hot summer day wearing thigh high leather boots. Matinee, gentlemen?

Reminds me of a truly funny episode of the ever so long running English comedy about two cockney brothers outside of London. The older brother’s scams always go awry and meanwhile his younger brother Rodney is trying to go straight and lead a normal life as a banker. Yet streetwise older brother Dell supports them both with his scams meanwhile along with Grandpa. The episode involves Dell trying to sell some blow up dolls that turn out to be stolen. The dolls not only inflate, the gas inside explodes upon inflation.  The series is called Only Fools & Horses, it's all over Youtube.

Only Fools and Horses: Danger UXD (Blow up dolls) Part Five

Hoffman can’t get no satisfaction because he’s a perfectionist

Joseph Calleja sipped his blue Gatorade from the plastic bottle backstage. He with his insight into Hoffman’s obsessions and failures.  He offers an answer as to why women distract and torment Hoffman so. Calleja said during the live interview backstage during the simulcast,  Hoffman is self-destructive, he drinks . . . the problem is Hoffman is a perfectionist.

The host always gives the leads a chance to say hello to their home country in their native language.  Calleja then greeted Malta which he says has an opera house from 1729. “Hello!”  Calleja himself seems affable, confident, positive, happy.  A dreamy tenor voice.

Anna Netrebko's Antonia

Then Debra Voight had the chutzpah to ask Calleja about how Anna Netrebko is different from other divas. He and Anna sang together in La Boheme. The audience in San Francisco laughed knowingly. Bad question. He said diplomatically what distinguishes Anna is her stage instinct (more laughing). Anna then appeared at his side.

Anna said the role of Antonia is short and brilliant. Most gorgeous music. The coat Antonia wears is real chinchilla and the shoes are real Prada. It’s a comfortable costume, said Anna.  Debra challenged her on the authenticity point.

Kind of a killjoy, Debra asked Anna then what’s it like wearing those while you are dying?

Anna just dropped the microphone to her side as if to say come on, get real. She seemed good naturedly speechless and looked at the camera. The worldwide audience. She answered it’s hard work and you won’t see all that hard work. She mentioned Bartlett Sher is fun.  Absolutely, in each and every way.

The costumes

About the costume, the designers Michael and Catherine appeared. Sher collaborated with Michael Yeargan (sets), Catherine Zuber (costumes), and James F. Ingalls (lighting). Michael said the setting is in Hoffman’s mind, his psyche. The sketches were very different from the end product so Debra asked them how they went from that:

Legal paper on a plane or hotel.  Bart wants it in a box. The painting was out at the last minute (Antonia’s mother).

They used silent films for inspiration with a Kafkaesque alienation, disconnection said Catherine. They did set the Venetian Carnival scene in the 18th Century with Giulietta’s red gown.

It’s in Hoffman’s mind. A constant though is Hoffman and his suit. The muse is a constant too as she gets a waistcoat and trousers. However in the 18th century imagined by Hoffman, she gets a frock coat for Venice.

Roberto Alagna and new production of "Carmen" next simulcast

Next the Frenchman Roberto Alagna showed up and provided some comic relief instead of Debra giving the diva a hard time. However, she wanted to know why Carmen is attracted to Don Jose? Alagna answered Carmen likes danger plus he’s a little attractive.

Mariusz Kwiecien who will sing Escamillo said with Escamillo everything is easy, that’s why Carmen likes Escamillo.

It’s a new production. Mariusz said Escamillo is a very short role so it’s hard to say what it’s like to work with the director. Mostly movements. Just be strong, handsome, beautiful, young. The audience in San Francisco laughed.

Alagna showed the role can be dangerous, he held up two fingers wrapped in black surgical tape. Stretched ligaments. He said though the director is fluent and clear. He likes French music and the deep characters. It’s well done.

What are the challenges to singing such well known songs? The audience will know if you make mistakes. Mariusz said though he only has one aria.

As for the challengers of attending an opera at the opera house.  My seatmate at the Century theater at Westfield Center in San Francisco, an architect, said the simulcast was a treat for $22. You don’t have to dress and the seats fit. You can eat popcorn. He had supered at San Francisco Opera way back in 1965, when Kurt Adler conducted. He forgot his gloves and after he ran back to the coke machine to get them, he tripped over a box in the dark and he said that was the end of his career.

To buy tickets:  Met broadcast tickets.

Theaters around San Francisco.

Met HD LIVE broadcasts 2009/10. 

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