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Tales of Hoffman at Berkeley Opera as bourgeoisie and the devil thwart poet's romance
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Tales of Siggy Seigel at Berkeley Opera
Siggy Seigel invited me to Berkeley Opera's production of Tales of Hoffman, romantic science fiction fantasy . . . macabre Jules Vernesque Victorian gothic romance. So. Why do artists universally find personal entanglements with romantic love played out on stage, just as their nemeses become larger than life there? In each tale of Hoffman the poet tells an autobiographical story. Each act shows a different side of the same woman, the singer he idealizes. In real life the married Hoffman fell in love with his singing students.
So. While Stella takes the form of three different women in three different acts, Hoffman's love is thwarted each time by evil or bourgeois hypocracy. It's a romantic horror story. Isn't that redundant?
Having just interviewed the tenor Siggy, I come to wonder, respectfully, why would the long time SFO chorister, on the board of directors at Berkeley, vote to produce Tales of Hoffman? Who is this woman? One of Siggy's favorite performers is Natalie Dessay, the French soprano who played Lucia di Lammermoor at SFO last summer. Here she is in a Youtube video as the doll who only Hoffman sees as real with a pair of magic glasses.
. . . the inventor Spalanzani admires his most recent invention, the mechanical doll Olympia, with which he hopes to recover money he lost in the collapse of the banking house of Élias. Hoffmann, the first guest to arrive, discovers Olympia and falls in love with her.
Natalie as a living doll . . . reminds me of Hoffman's Nutcracker . . .
Natalie Dessay high Gs
In the next macabre act the woman becomes a singer who is so weak physically the act of singing will kill her . . .
So . . . the charlatan Dr. Miracle presents Antonia with a hallucination of her mother and convinces her to sing herself to death.
Miracle suddenly reappears, taunting Antonia with prospects of fame as a singer. The girl cries out to the portrait of her Mother, a famous singer, to help her resist temptation. Conjuring the portrait to life, Miracle declares that the Mother, speaking through him, wants Antonia to equal the glory of her own fame. As Miracle fiddles wildly on his violin, Antonia sings more and more feverishly until she collapses. Hoffmann rushes in, only to find her dead.
Here is the finale of Antonia's tale.
By Act III the woman becomes a courtesan, Giulietta, as indominable or unattainable women in opera are obligated to. Indeed, she's tempted by a devilish sorcerer Dappertutto who dangles a big diamond. Dappertutto . . . that's an Italian adverb meaning everywhere . . . and he knows diamonds are a girl's best friend universally.
. . . In a Venetian palace on the Grand Canal, the courtesan Giulietta joins Nicklausse in a languid barcarole. Hoffmann abruptly changes the mood as he mockingly praises the pleasures of the flesh. Giulietta's current lover, Schlemil, jealously acknowledges her apparent affection for Hoffmann. Giulietta invites her guests to the gaming tables, but Nicklausse remains behind to warn Hoffmann against forming any attachment to the courtesan. The poet denies interest in her, declaring that should he fall in love with her, the devil may have his soul. Dappertutto, overhearing them, produces a large diamond with which he will bribe Giulietta to steal Hoffmann's reflection, just as she already has stolen Schlemil's shadow.
Here is our villain Dappertutto played by Mark Delavan, who is coming to play Wotan at SFO, a god doomed by his pursuit of power and the gold ring. He sings Dappertutto in concert: "Scintille! Diamant!"
Since Mark, a gentleman, just shared a dressing room at Lyric Chicago with his competitor, fellow Wotan/Scarpia/John the Baptist/Dappertutto Greer Grimsley, here is dapper ladykiller Greer . . .
Moreover here's what the Victorian gothic opera looks like with Sam Ramey.
At Berkeley Opera this week, northern Californian Adam Flowers is the tortured poet Hoffmann, American Angela Cadelago the objects (all three versions) of his affection, barihunk (sorry) Paul Murray his villainous rival and Nora Martin his devoted friend and muse. InsideBayArea.com's Cheryl North gives Nora a shining review as she did the entire production and the Berkeley Opera. Captivating, she says.
Also, a film from the UK 1951 . . .
A German silent film 1916 . . .
And finally, in closing, Hoffman is a man after my own heart . . . according to Wikipedia . . .
The married but lovelorn Hoffman was exiled after he caricatured military and distributed the pictures at a ball . . . during the Napoleanic era he depended on his friends for handouts and went for days with no food and his daughter died . . . just before his own death he caricatured a political leader involved with investigating political dissidence . . . and got sued for it but the proceedings petered out when they realized Hoffman’s illness was life threatening. He died at 46 in Berlin.
Hoffmann's work illuminates the darker side of the human spirit found behind the hypocritical harmony of bourgeois life
Note from Cindy . . . I graduated from Berkeley in sociology and my ex hubby Tracy had a BA in English . . .
For more info: BerkeleyOpera.org
Photo of Greer Grimsley courtesy of Greer Grimsley
Photo of Siggy courtesy of Sigmund Seigel
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Contact the writer at SFOperaExaminer@Yahoo.com
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