The poet Hoffmann thinking of his beloved Stella, struggles with a writer’s block. His Muse, in disguise, is determined to steer Hoffmann away from his unhappy love and back to art. Hoffmann begins recounting the stories of three women he once loved: Olympia, Antonia, and Giulietta. In her staging, director Lotte de Beer creates a dialogue between Hoffmann and the Muse, a confrontation between art and the artist. Jacques Offenbach’s name remains synonymous with operetta, but at the end of his life, he worked on his most ambitious masterpiece: the fantastic opera Les contes d’Hoffmann.

Co-production with the Opéra National du Rhin, the Théâtre National de l'Opéra-Comique and the Opéra de Reims.

(Source: volksoper.at)