Les contes d'Hoffmann

Offenbach Les contes d'Hoffmann opera to a libretto by Jules Barbier. Directed 2015 by Stefan Herheim at the Bregenz Festival. Stars Daniel Johansson (Hoffmann), Kerstin Avemo (Olympia, Giulietta), Mandy Friedrich (Antonia, Giulietta), Rachel Frenkel (Muse, Niklausse, Voice of Antonia's mother), Michael Volle (Lindorf, Luther, Coppélius, Dr. Miracle, Dapertutto), Bengt-Ola Morgny (Spalanzani), Ketil Hugaas (Crespel) and Christophe Mortagne (Andrès, Cochenille, Frantz, Pitichinaccio). Back art leaves out Stella, who is played it seems by Pelle Karlsson. But Herheim cuts Schlemil. Johannes Debus conducts the Wiener Symphoniker and Prague Philharmonic Orchestra (Chorus Master Lukáš Vasilek). Set design by Christof Hetzer; costume design by Esther Bialas; lighting design by Phoenix (Andreas Hofer); videos by fettFilm (Momme Hinrichs and Torge Møller); dramaturgy by Olaf A. Schmidt. Directed for TV by Felix Breisach. Sung in French. Released 2016, Blu-ray disc has 5.0 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA

Herheim's wild gender-fluid adaptation with multiple personalities apparently takes a lot of attention to fathom.

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Here's news about high-definition video disc ("HDVD") recordings of opera, ballet, classical music, plays, fine-art documentaries, and paintings. In the journal below are independent (and hard-to-find critical) reports on hundreds of HDVDs. Pick the best titles for your excelsisphere.

Feb 25. We have just completed one of our most ambitious reviews: Einstein on the Beach opera, the surreal 4 and 1/2 hour cult legend. Kudos, encomiums, and accolades to Opus Arte for giving us this authoritative and weirdly fascinating recording, which we grade A+. Absorbing and learning Einstein is uniquely challenging. We try to help out by providing aids not included in the keepcase materials: an accurate libretto and a list of segments in the opera with correct Opus Arte time stamps. Good luck!

We have some other good grades with an A for the recent Met The Pearl Fishers (Les pêcheurs de perles) and a B- for an earlier The Pearl Fishers from Naples. Also, we recently gave an A- for the new Don Quixote from the Vienna State Ballet.