The Metropolitan's new season opens with a fantastic opera by German-born French composer Jacques Offenbach about the great German romantic E.T.A. Hoffmann. Written in 1880, the work tells the fictional story of the poet's life and love. Drowning his sorrows in a tavern, E.T.A. Hofmann tells his friend Niklaus (who is really the writer's muse incarnate) about three women he has loved in the past - Olympia, Antonia and Juliet. All three stories ended with the poet's heart breaking and it seems that his latest passion, the opera prima donna Stella, will also go to someone else. Undeterred by the poet's whining, his muse reveals her true identity and the stunned writer vows to be faithful only to her from now on.
The role of the tormented poet in the new production is played by French tenor Benjamin Bernheim. The roles of the three women in his life are sung by the American soprano Erin Morley (Olympia), the French mezzo-soprano Clémentine Margaine (Juliet) and the South African soprano Pretty Yende (Antonia), who also impersonates the opera's prima donna Stella. The roles of the four mysterious villains are played by American bass-baritone Christian Van Horn, while Russian mezzo-soprano Vasilisa Berzhanskaya makes her Metropolitan debut as Niklaus.
The Prologue and Epilogue are set in an unnamed German city, the Luther Tavern. The setting of the tavern (which also includes the presence of a diabolical customer) recalls the Faust legend and creates a different atmosphere for the following episodes. Each of these recollections takes place in powerful settings reflecting a cross-section of European cultures: in Paris (Act I), Munich (Act II) and Venice (Act III). In Bartlett Sher's production, the world of Franz Kafka and the 1920s era provide a dramatic point of departure.
