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Les Contes d'Hoffmann
Opéra Bastille - from 30 November to 27 December 2023
Les Contes d'Hoffmann
Jacques Offenbach
Opéra Bastille - from 30 November to 27 December 2023
3h30 with 2 intervals
Language : French
Surtitle : French / English
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Opening night : 30 nov. 2023
About
Listen to the synopsis
In few words:
In a tavern, the poet Hoffmann, who has just heard the diva Stella sing, tells the story of the three women he has loved: Olympia, Antonia and Giulietta, three loves thwarted by an evil spirit, Lindorf. Will his passion for Stella suffer the same fate? With this fantastic opera, drawing on the imagination of the writer E.T.A. Hoffmann, Jacques Offenbach sought to prove that he was more than a composer of lightweight works. Even though it remained unfinished after his death in 1880, the score constitutes a magnificent swan song and abounds with famous passages such as the Barcarolle and the Doll Song. Robert Carsen, always fond of portraying theatre within theatre, plunges the audience into the world of an opera house, from the stage to the wings, as his dizzying mise en abyme questions the notions of the anti-hero and the female ideal.
CHARACTERS
The Muse, Nicklausse: Hoffmann’s muse who has taken human form
Counsellor Lindorf: Politician who lusts after the singer Stella
Olympia: Mechanical doll
Spalanzani: Eccentric inventor, Olympia’s “father”
Coppélius: Hawker who supplied the doll’s eyes
Cochenille: Spalanzani’s assistant
Antonia: Young singer engaged to Hoffmann
Crespel: Violinist, Antonia’s father
Doctor Miracle: Evil charlatan
Frantz: Crespel’s servant
Giulietta: Venetian courtesan
Dapertutto: Venetian magician
Schlémil: Former lover of Giulietta
Pitichinaccio: Giulietta’s servant
Nathanaël, Hermann: Friends of Hoffmann
Luther: Innkeeper
- Opening
- First part 75 mn
- Intermission 20 mn
- Second part 55 mn
- Intermission 20 mn
- Third part 40 mn
- End
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Les Contes d'Hoffmann
"Opéra fantastique" in a prologue, three acts and an epilogue (1881)
After Jules Barbier, Michel Carré
In French -
With Nadine Koutcher, Kate Aldrich, Ermonela Jaho, Stéphanie d'Oustrac...
Performances
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Available in audiodescription
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Book your tickets today with the Season Pass
Available in audiodescription
Advantages
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Gallery
Videos clips
Audio clips
Les Contes d'Hoffmann - C'est une chanson d'amour
Les Contes d'Hoffmann - L'air d'Olympia
Les Contes d'Hoffmann - La légende de Kleinzach
Les Contes d'Hoffmann - Jacques Offenbach
Backstage
01:35’
Video
Draw-me Les Contes d'Hoffmann
Understand the plot in 1 minute
Could there be a greater homage to the inventor of magic realism in literature than to make him the principal character of an opera in which all resemblance to reality is abolished in favour of an imaginary world with its own rules? In this work by Offenbach, Hoffmann, an ill-fated poet and composer, evokes his past love affairs and leads us through a universe in which dream and reality intermingle. Director Robert Carsen plays masterfully with this play within a play and his spectacular mise en abyme takes us behind the scenes of opera.
© Christophe Pelé / OnP
Article
The Contes d’Hoffmann: Stage Craft for the Supernumeraries
Interview with Marie-Françoise Sombart, head of the Supernumeraries Department
07’
For the revival of The Tales of Hoffmann at Opéra Bastille (until 14th February), Octave went to meet Marie-Françoise Sombart, the head of supernumerary actors*. Here she reveals the different aspects of her work with the supernumeraries, which she carries out in collaboration with Gilles Maurige.
What does your job consist of?
I recruit the supernumeraries needed for each operatic production and look after them from their selection until they get paid. I look for supers according to the profiles required, I organise the auditions and manage all the human resources side of their engagement (administrative information, contracts, attendance records etc.).
I am in close contact with all the departments concerned, particularly stage management with whom I work on a daily basis – in rehearsal and during performances-, but also with the production team, costumes, hair and make-up, the dressers, salaries etc.
The casting of children is a special case. During the last few seasons, stage directors have used children a lot. Their recruitment is particular in terms of how we look for them but also because of the type of dossier with a very strict legal framework which has to be sent to a commission.
To manage all this, I am assisted by Gilles Maurige, theatre manager at the Palais Garnier who also works with the supernumerary department at Bastille.
Robert Carsen’s production of The Tales of Hoffmann has become one of the Paris Opera’s show-case productions. How many supers are there? Is this what we call a “big” production?
The Tales of Hoffmann was first performed in 2000. Twenty years ago already!... Off the top of my head, in terms of extras, the biggest production was Francesca Zambello’s War and Peace from the spring of 2005, with 90 supernumeraries, dancers, children etc. The Tales of Hoffmann uses a total of 54 supers. That’s still a big production in terms of numbers.
What qualities are required for this production in particular?
Robert Carsen wanted something very “dynamic” involving a lot of work on movement in the crowd scenes. It is for this reason that he asked Philippe Giraudeau to choreograph these scenes. It’s the same for the Chorus. But in these crowd scenes, each person must also play the role or roles they have been given. In this production, just for the supers, there are no fewer than thirty or so roles to play from start to finish, sometimes with very quick costume changes.
How were the auditions for Les Contes d’Hoffmann organised?
Robert Carsen, as is sometimes the case, wanted to re-audition in 2010, because of the television broadcast. The previous cast and the director’s specifications made it clear what kinds of profiles were required: a range of builds and ages and the ability to work in a group.
Since that second audition, the cast has evolved and changes have been made in the spirit required by the production. Often, indeed, the director does not return for the revival of his production so the work is carried out in close collaboration with the assistant directors.
Where do the supernumeraries come from? Is there a “pool” of them? Can anyone audition?
The supernumeraries who work at the Paris Opera are mainly show business professionals. They’re from theatre, dance or the circus. They’re trained and qualified in their field (theatre school, conservatoires, performing arts schools etc.) and are also freelance professionals.
We have a list that we add to every time a new artist is hired. In that sense, we can talk about a pool. We call upon them every time their profile corresponds to the requirements of the production. But we always try to integrate new artists who want to come and perform at a big opera house. In that case, we look at the CVs we have received and publicise the auditions in the various specialised establishments or, when we have very specific requirements, at employment agencies for the performing arts.
The auditions are closed. For organisational reasons for one thing: in the past there was an open casting call for which an endless queue of artists formed at 120 rue Lyon. We couldn’t see everybody because the director cannot spend the entire day on that. And also, for artistic reasons. The director asks for particular profiles and my role is to give him a selection of people that correspond to what he has asked for. My role as a filter is necessary to ensure the quality of the audition.
Has the work of the supernumerary department changed over the years?
I wouldn’t say that the work has changed. Our mission is always the same: finding the artist that corresponds to the role the director wants to develop on stage. And to permit that artist to do what s/he has been engaged to do under the best conditions.
New computer technology has made the job easier, allowing us to collate all the data on the artists we hire, thus to research according to profile and measurements. But one can assess the evolution of the supers in new productions.
The demands of stage directors are more exacting. Dmitri Tcherniakov, for example, has a very precise idea of the profiles he’s looking for. And since he’s been directing at the Paris Opera, it is not unusual to have to organise several auditions for the same production, until he’s found what he wants. And it’s very satisfying at the end to find it... at last!
Another requirement: that of finding the artists who will bring a “plus” to the production, without knowing what will make that “plus”! This was the case with Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski last season. He wanted a circus act without knowing exactly what kind or with whom. We therefore had to audition a lot of circus artists, whilst imagining their specialism and the effects that might best suit the wedding scene. And it was a hula hoop artist and somebody doing a balancing act with a baton who finally provided the effect we’d been looking for.
Finally, other kinds of profiles have emerged. Romeo Castellucci wanted to work on Moses and Aaron with handicapped artists. And there, it was a whole parallel system of organisation that had to be put in place in order to accommodate them. Dmitri Tcherniakov asked for the same thing last season for The Trojans but the autonomy of the people we hired, amputated but with prosthetic legs, made the arrangements simpler.
In both cases, it was the research that was very complicated and lengthy!
Has Robert Carsen intervened in the revival again?
No, Robert Carsen has not been back this time. Directors are rarely present for revivals. They leave the responsibility of restaging the production to the in-house assistant. The assistant is the stage director’s memory!
Robert Carson is one of the directors whose productions from the “Gall Period” (1995-2004) are regularly revived. The Tales of Hoffmann is his show-case production, and one that everyone adores taking up again!
* Depending on the Stage management department
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