Offenbach: Les contes d’Hoffmann ****
Komische Oper, Berlin, 7th October 2015
Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann must be a gift to stage. Based on three of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s disturbing tales, the opera allows plenty of scope for inventive directors – or possibly plenty of rope with which to hang themselves. Barrie Kosky, with nods to the surreal and the macabre, plunges us headlong into Hoffmann’s nightmarish world in a terrific new production at the Komische Oper. You may not always agree with his decisions, but they are executed with élan to make this a riotously entertaining evening.
Uwe Schönbeck (Hoffmann)
© Monika Rittershaus
Read the full review on Bachtrack.