NAU NUA: LAURENT PELLY

A green eye among blue walls

Les contes d'Hoffman by Jacques Offenbach

Wonderful. Delicious. Les Contes d’Hoffmann by Jacques Offenbach premiered at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona under the stage direction of Laurent Pelly, the musical direction of Stéphane Denève and scenario by Chantal Thomas, creator of a structure of walls and stairs with a changing shape in a wonderful blue in which highlights each one of the scenes of this fantastic opera composed by Jacques Offenbach released on February 10, 1881 at the Opéra Comique de Paris with the original libretto written by Jules Barbier based on the story written by the same Jules Barbier along with Michel Carré. And fantasy came true, even in the stalls and each one of the boxes.

It all starts with the muse of poetry, in love with Hoffmann to who she’s giving all the inspiration, appearing in a tavern in Nuremberg with the student Nicklausse’s appearance. She tries to convince Hoffmann to forget his love for the singer Stella. Hoffmann, drunk, tells his companions on three fables about three aborted loves: Olympia, Antonia and Giulietta. All three embody his love for Stella. So unfolds this fanciful opera that Offenbach could not finish completely before dying, so it has never maintained a fixed structure. Finally, Hoffmann just surrendered again to poetry and his muse.

Olympia is superbly played by Kathleen Kim. The applause was generic and enthusiastic after "Les oiseaux dans la Charmille" not being Hoffmann the only one to give his love to the finally discovered automat Olympia, to the horror and cruel mockery of the crowd. Antonia has the gift of a unique voice and the misfortune of a disease with which she could die just singing. The moving "Elle a fui, la tourterelle" was just a sample of the delight which involved listening to Natalie Dessay, who finally sang tempted by the devil. The scenario of Chantal Thomas put us back in this act to the best films of German Expressionism, as if Doctor Caligari or Nosferatu danced the Offenbach’s delights. Finally, the courtesan Giulietta is stealing people's reflexes, thus losing its soul. Tatiana Pavlovskaya performs one of the most anticipated and special moments of the night, the Barcarolle “Belle nuit, ô nuit d'amour”, and with it all our dreams emerge free, satisfied of overflowing happiness thanks to drink from the source of lyrical and visual pleasure.

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Text by Juan Carlos Romero