SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Offenbach, Les Contes d’Hoffmann: Soloists, chorus and orchestra of the Royal Opera House. Conductor: Antonio Pappano. Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 25.11.2008 (JPr)

Gidon Saks as Coppelius and Rolando Villazón as Hoffmann

A diabolical villain, young people in love, persons of restricted growth, a woman dressed up as a man plus some magical effects:  it is November - in London - so pantomime season must have started. Well, not quite because this is Offenbach though whether the composer would have recognised much in his own work here is open to debate.

The story of course, involves Hoffmann’s three loves (Olympia, a mechanical doll, Giulietta, a courtesan, Antonia, a frail singer) and the woman he is currently infatuated with (Stella, an actress) as well as how his nemesis, Lindorf, who by assuming the disguises of Coppélius, Dappertutto and Dr Miracle has always been present to thwart Hoffmann’s hopes of happiness. Hoffmann’s sidekick in all this who is there to rescue him from the troughs of despond caused by Lindorf’s machinations is his companion Nicklausse, a trousers role. She also morphs into the muse of poetry and pleads with Hoffmann to dedicate himself to writing. Throughout the work,  music is used by the demonic forces (who may be either real in Hoffmann’s life or merely just figments of his imagination)  but it is through music that he becomes an artist.

The opera has a prologue, three acts and an epilogue. Offenbach,  primarily a composer of operettas, chose to compose this serious, often dark and sinister work with only occasional humour but unfortunately died about four months before the first performance leaving the score incomplete. It was generally believed that Offenbach had only managed to complete the piano score, plus the orchestrated the prologue and the entire first act before his demise, but in a programme note, John Snelson  comments that ‘he had completed the major part of the opera and even attended a couple of initial rehearsals’. Presumably this evidence comes from the handwritten score with amendments rediscovered in 2004. Even so,  since everything was not completely finished many others were involved in completing  ‘Offenbach’s last testament’ as one critic put it and a number of different versions of the opera eventually came into existence - some undoubtedly bearing little resemblance to Offenbach’s original ideas. The opera’s première  was given in a version by Ernest Guiraud, who completed Offenbach's scoring and wrote the recitatives. Most often however the Chouden version from 1907 is used with some modifications although in 1978,  Fritz Oeser produced a ‘critical edition.' It turns out that even this has been undermined by  material discovered subsequently.

Ekaterina Lekhina as Olympia

So the main problem with staging Hoffmann is  first of all,  the addition of extra music including some obviously not written by Offenbach. For instance in the Venice Act the famous aria ‘Scintille, diamant’ is not the original one for this scene and many bass-baritones, including possibly Gidon Saks here at Covent Garden, would be pleased if that difficult music went. Secondly however, the order of the acts may  need changing since Offenbach wanted prologue-Olympia-Antonia-Giulietta-epilogue, but it has become common practice to perform the Giulietta's Act before Antonia's. The general reason for this is that clearly the 'Antonia' Act is much more musically accomplished than the Venice Act. Thirdly, there is the problem of  changes to the story over time: in 1881, when the opera was first performed in Vienna, Giulietta's act was not only restored having been left out earlier,  but was also modified so that she does get poisoned and die at the end but leaves in a gondola accompanied by her servant Pittichinaccio. This ending is still the often preferred one. Finally,  there are also difficulties about accurately sustaining the number of singers involved to what  the composer wanted. Originally, the four soprano roles were to  be played by the same singer, because Olympia, Giulietta and Antonia are meant to be three aspects of Stella, Hoffmann's unobtainable love. Similarly, all four villains should be performed by the same bass-baritone, because they are all evil incarnate. While the latter happens quite frequently, most performances of the work use different singers for the heroines, mainly due to the different vocal ranges required for each role: Olympia demands a coloratura singer with the highest of high notes, Giulietta is for a dramatic soprano (or even a mezzo-soprano as in these current performances) and Antonia is written for a more lyric voice with a secure top.

At Covent Garden, the late John Schlesinger’s 1980 production predates much scholarly revisions for almost everything; from the casting of the main protagonists to the order of the Acts. The costume designs by Maria Bjornson  are still sumptuous and William Dudley's sets are extravagantly three-dimensional and complicated,  causing long pauses for scene changes and of course there costumes changes for singers with different characters to portray. To fit all this in means that there is time for a reprise of the Barcarolle – totally out of place - after the 'Antonia' Act and before the epilogue. The production  is unashamedly non-PC by today's standards too with, among other things, small semi-naked children and lots of bodies beautiful and not-so-beautiful cavorting in the Venice Act -  the one that features the servant of 'restricted growth.'

Although Offenbach wanted all four villains to be played by one bass-baritone and all four loves by a single soprano,  iIn this current series of performances - the seventh revival of this production since 1980 - we have first but not the second. When I sat in the audience for the very first performance of this staging on 15 December 1980,  there were four different villains and four different sopranos. Forgive the Hoffmannesque pun,  but that was a stellar cast with Domingo as Hoffmann with the villains portrayed by Robert Lloyd, Geraint Evans, Siegmund Nimsgern and Nicola Ghiuselev and the three women played by Luciana Serra, Agnes Baltsa and Ileana Cotrubas. A recording of this survives on DVD. Singers have come and gone during subsequent revivals but it is arguable whether  any subsequent ensemble bettered that from the first night. Pprobably not,  though in 2000 Marcelo Álvarez surpassed Domingo as Hoffmann with his pathetically drunk, visionary, gauche and romantic poet who was all too human. That has always been one of Covent Garden best ‘shows’ for me and despite its admitted lack of great psychological insight, the production remains an enjoyable spectacle and a wonderful showcase for good singing and good acting.

But the past is of course the past and it is the current revival by Christopher Cowell that needs comment now. I know from my talk with Graham Clark (see article) that it all has been carefully prepared but I found some voices sounding quite tired, particularly during the prologue and the first two Acts and some of the comedy and drama coming across as a little forced and lacking in spontaneity. Making his debut in the four villain roles, Gidon Saks' acting generally was of the pantomime ‘boo-hiss’ variety though his embodiments of evil were reasonably well differentiated. Unfortunately he was also let down by a voice that lacked some necessary low notes and a tendency  not to enunciate his words clearly. His best moments were in Act III when faced with a singer who had the notes and projection he lacked in Matthew Rose’s Crespel, the sympathetic father to Antonia: there Saks’s voice seemed to gain more focus - or maybe the notes lay better for him. The trios in this Act between Crespel, Miracle and Hoffmann and for Crespel, Miracle and Antonia were some of the best singing of the evening.

Olympia was Ekaterina Lekhina, making her Covent Garden debut; she was a totally credible doll who only comes to life when Hoffmann puts on his rose-tinted spectacles. Her top notes were laser-bright and she is a soprano of fearsome agility and accuracy. Christine Rice was alluring as the courtesan Giulietta; her mezzo is warm with plummy tones. Katie Van Kooten is fresh voiced and ardent as Antonia but is a little too inexperienced to make the audience feel much for her doomed character’s fate. Returning after her Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos earlier this year, Kristine Jepson is again very convincing in trousers as Hoffmann’s companion Nicklausse and was also poignant as his poetic muse at the end of the opera.

There were very many appealing cameos including Matthew Rose  as Crespel  in Act III. In the same Act Gaynor Keeble made the most of her few moments as the Spirit of Antonia’s mother and Kostas Smoriginas was a suitable vengeful Schlemil. It was Graham Clark however, who caught the eye and ear with his quartet of small often monosyllabic supporting characters. His perfect diction and eye-catching broader acting was a real treat and his voice was brighter and louder than some as he ‘Tra-la-la’-ed as the humorously deaf servant Franz in Act III.

Rolando Villazón reprises the role in which he made his well-received house debut in 2004 in a revival I did not see. His voice continues to disappointment me; although very musical it is rather small and did not carry to the back of the stalls before Act III. The lower voice is suitably baritonal but the top is not easy and does not ring. He is an exuberant performer and is totally committed to the performance,  but he was less convincing when inebriated and was better as the ardent lover. In his appearance, his innocence - especially when he collapsed on the stage due to his humiliation at the end of the 'Olympia' Act -  reminded me of Mr Bean.

The chorus sang with their usual brio and the orchestra played well but lacked some lustre,  sounding rather perfunctory in the way they  sometimes do at ballet performances. This was a pity as these performances were dedicated to the memory of Richard Hickox who conducted the Hoffmann revival in 2004. Unfortunately,  Antonio Pappano seems to have no great enthusiasm for this music which required a broader more sumptuous approach to it on the whole and, where appropriate, more sparkle and even darker colours.

Jim Pritchard

Pictures © Bill Cooper

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