“Belle nuit, Ȏ nuit d’amour...
” The words may not be familiar, but all the world can hum along with that gently lilting barcarolle. It’s the signature tune of Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffmann , a production of which – after two cancellations due to Covid – has opened at the Royal Opera House four years late, but with its starry cast intact. It’s directed by Damiano Michieletto, who is famous for taking liberties with operatic texts and, on occasion, enraging audiences.
What liberties would this Italian provocateur take with Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffmann ? None that outdo the composer’s own crazy liberties with reality. The plot begins and ends with Hoffman – an alcoholic poet – recounting to a posse of drunken students three disastrous amours of his youth, with one girl murdered, one dumping him, and one turning out to be a mechanical doll. The message of the opera, says Michieletto, is that happiness and love are illusions.
But that limp rationale is not what drew him to this multi-coloured work. What he likes, he has said, is the way it operates both as a fantastical cabaret, and as a study of grief, nostalgia, and loneliness. And what the audience like is not the convoluted plot, in which everyone is a shape-shifting wraith whose emotions can’t be taken seriously.
What draws people is Offenbach’s bewitching cornucopia of arias, duets and orchestral interludes. Michieletto’s cast includes a clutch of brilliant singing actors, led by two great si.