Paolo Fantin Archives - North West End UK

Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann is one of his most enduring operas, with the suggestion that it is incomplete – it premiered some four months after its composer’s death – lending it to interpretation which director Damiano Michieletto has taken full advantage of here in this lavishly visual staging which weaves magic and mystery through oft-imagined memories. At the tavern, poet Hoffmann (Juan Diego Flórez) is losing himself to drink. His rival in love, Councillor Lindorf (Alex Esposito), claims that Hoffmann knows nothing of the heart, and so goads Hoffmann into telling the tales of his three great loves – each destroyed by a villain who bears an uncanny resemblance to Lindorf… Accompanied by Nicklausse (Julie Boulianne), the oft ignored voice of reason throughout, Hoffmann te...

Director Damiano Michieletto’s desire to get away from 19th-century Seville sadly results in the loss of more than a picturesque background with its relocation to a small town in a remote and rural Spain in the 1970s and I still can’t fathom why he has chosen to introduce the character of Don José’s widowed mother to the stage when she is only ever referred to in the libretto. Thankfully for the audience the performance from the two charismatic leads salvages some of the passion and intrigue mostly lost in this presentation of this dark tale. In an unnamed town, naïve policeman Don José (Piotr Beczała) falls head over heads in love with Carmen (Aigul Akhmetshina), a seductive and free-spirited girl working at the local factory. Infatuated, Don José abandons his childhood sweetheart, Mic...

Tag: Paolo Fantin

The Tales of Hoffmann – Royal Ballet & Opera

Carmen – Royal Opera House