Offenbach: Les Contes d’Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann)
a short contextual review of dramatic structure
Hoffmann is not your usual opera: it has 5 acts, and the protagonist — Hoffmann the poet himself, sings through all these 5 acts. But besides these musical features, the libretto also stands out on its own.
The typical opera follows the Freytag’s Pyramid narration framework. By that it means that there usually is a build up of conflict and tension towards the climax. But for Hoffmann, the narrative doesn’t follow this usual flow. There are certain minor conflicts in each of the three major acts, but they actually ended on the (anti-)climax, usually a tragic outcome related to his girlfriends.
An interesting point to note is that many operas focus on man-vs-man conflicts e.g. in Artaserse, Artaserse vs. Artabano. Whereas in Hoffmann, the conflicts are rather internal, man-vs-self. It was through those failures in love that Hoffmann began to realize the love he was chasing after, and the love he needs, is the love for the Muse. It tells you a lot when the Muse is disguised as the poet’s steward throughout the opera, insinuating that whatever happens to Hoffmann, only the Muse would always be beside him. Hoffmann’s girlfriends, on the other hand, are also rather constant, being played by the same soprano (despite the great technical difficulty in switching between different textures for the different character), may have suggested that they can be viewed as various sides of one ideal lover for Hoffmann. And, coincidentally, their qualities can all be found in one character.
While Hoffmann is apparently the good ol’ fellow, his nemeses, similarly played by the same vocalist as Hoffmann’s girlfriends, was suggested to be ‘de I’esprit comme un diable (three times as witty as the devil),’ ‘dans… un aspect satanique (of a satanic aspect)’ in the Prologue. However, it is with the contrast by Hoffmann’s evil nemeses that we are able to characterize him as ‘THE Good Guy’. Otherwise, it’s just a poor guy being rejected, betrayed, or witness the death of his lovers. And not to mention it was because of these failures in love that Hoffmann come to realize that was not what he was really looking for or need.
There were suggestions that the opera is an elongated, with-plot ‘theme and variations’. This is true in a musical sense, because Hoffmann’s theme recurs throughout the play in various modalities and modifications. In terms of plot, though, I would beg to differ that Stella’s section (Prologue & Epilogue) is a theme: first, her existence does not trigger any event until the end of the opera — it’s not like Hoffmann gets drunk because of Stella; second, Stella’s arc is incomplete at the point where it does not create a lot of basis for other female characters to develop on. It is a prelude, sure, but not quite a theme.
What I think is a theme in the opera though would be disillusionment. Hoffmann recalls all of the romances he had before the prologue with Olympia, Antonia and Giulietta when intoxicated; he wore a pair of special glasses to see Olympia as a real person instead of a robot; Antonia sees an illusion of her late mother, which caused her to sing until she drops dead; Giulietta embezzles Hoffmann when he was in a trance. All of these may have suggest that, just as the fantastic plot of the play, might just as well be an illusion. Even if not, art is greatly correlated to illusions and imagination.
References
- Hadlock, H. (1994). Return of the Repressed: The prima donna from Hoffmann’s “Tales” to Offenbach’s “Contes”, Cambridge Opera Journal, 6(3):221–243.
- Huffman, R.S. (1976). “Les Contes d’Hoffmann”: Unity of Dramatic Form in the Libretto, Studies in Romanticism, 15(1):97–117
Cite as: Bachmanov, G. (April 5, 2024). Offenbach: Les Contes d’Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann): a short contextual review of dramatic structure. Opera of the Day. https://operaoftheday.medium.com/offenbach-les-contes-dhoffmann-the-tales-of-hoffmann-177d74f9ad88
