Customer Reviews:

• Wow, what a Hoffmann!
  There are other recordings of Hoffmann that I love, including the one with Domingo and Sutherland, but I love to come back to this one time and time again because it starrs the uncomparable Beverly Sills. She was renowned for doing all the heroines in this opera, and she justly receives kudos for her interpretations. The doll song is sung perfectly throughout and every note is dead-accurate. As another review points out, perhaps she could have included some embellishments, but that's a tiny quibble. This is still a stellar performance of the doll song, ending with the biggest-sounding E flat I have ever heard from Sills! An extremely thrilling high note!
  Unlike others, I have no problem with Sills' Giulietta. Perhaps her bright timbre doesn't make the character sound as bitc*y as we'd like, but I don't mind at all, because her vocal acting of the role still kicks butt!
  And of course, Sills is the best as Antonia. Lyrical, gentle singing, portraying a very vulnerable character. Sills was supreme in singing characters like these, among many other types.

  Norman Treigle owned the roles of the villains, and here's why! His interpretations sound absoutely cruel and evil. Wow, what acting!

  Sills and Treigle loved doing this opera together, and sparks flew when they were on stage. We can hear a sample of what that magic was like. Don't hesitate to buy this wonderful Hoffmann!...more info

• Absolutely first rate
  First a disclaimer... Back around 1970, I was doing some work with Houston Grand Opera and heard essentially this same production from backstage. I readily admit to being a huge fan of Beverly Sills.
  
  Still, for me this is, like Sills' "Lucia", a definitive performance against which all others are to be judged. Although all the cast is excellent, and the musical direction and performance impeccable, it is Sills and the late, great Norman Triegle who walk away with the show. I can't recommend it highly enough.
  
  A couple of "insider insights" to share, though... Ms. Sills most definitely did *not* need a microphone. Whether her voice sounds "thin" on the recording or not (and I don't think it does), I can assure you that she could easily project to the top balconies in Houston's cavernous Jones Hall without amplification. The same with Triegle - a fascinating wiry little man who couldn't have weighed more than 120 pounds soaking wet. Unfortunately, he was also a chain smoker so his death from cancer a few years later was not surprising....more info
• Adequate
  Sutherland, Callas and Sills. And the venom is spewed and the imbecilic attacks rage on. They were all three wonderful. So are others, but I for one like them the best. Callas was my first love, she's strange, but I still like her, her vicious off-stage personality (which I have a recording of) notwithstanding. How silly! I don't like Sutherland singing anything but coloratura, sorry, but all else bores me. I bought a CD of her Suor Angelica and hated and trashed it. But coloratura, she's a dream. Sills, however, is my favorite. I can't resist that silky, butter melting on a plate voice of hers. And her coloratura (and Callas') is no schlock either. But this opera. It was smooth and warm and beautiful. The sound quality was perfect. It was all sung in French, and for once the opera sounded it. It begins with some spoken dialogue (by the Muse) which turned me off and I was mad as hell and decided to throw the thing away, I thought I had been duped, cheated into another comic opera. But (sigh), I went back and discovered to my joy that it is all sung, and beautifully. Sills plays all Hoffman's loves. The trio at the end of Antonia's act was wonderful as far as the women went, but (sigh) Dr. Miracle was again the weak link. No one I've heard beats Bacquier on the Sutherland (a version with dialogue, sad to say) recording, but this one came close. The trio was beautiful of course (with that music and good singers, how could it miss), but I thought it lacked the spark on Sutherland's version. I'm sure I've enraged Callas fanatics and Sutherland devotees and maybe even a Sills fan or two. So be it. The order of acts are Olympia, Giulietta and Antonia. I enjoyed the opera which arrived yesterday and which I listened to this morning. If you like/love Sills as I do, I recommend it. Otherwise it's just another Hoffmann....more info
• Sills only good as Olympia
  Sill's coloratura is very good. And her voice is ideal as Olympia. But she is totally unsuited to sing the other heroines. Her voice is too small and shrill to do them justice. It is the microphone that has made her an idol. One star is for her technique, the other star is for her fine acting....more info
• I'm sorry
  I'm sorry if I hurt anyone. I was just so mad and angry because Callas got bashed so many times by a Sills-Fanatic. I deeply apologise. Sills has a very beautiful voice, one of the best lyric coloratura voices out there. I hope Bev's fans will forgive me. Sills is an amazing Olympia btw....more info
• A Spectacular Studio Recording: The Best
  This 1972 studio recording is the ultimate Tales Of Hoffman. The recording was originally an LP on the ABC label in the Westminster Legacy issues, but digitally remastered and edited for cd by Deutsche Grammophon. Deutsche Grammophone cd labels are famous for remastering legendary and classic recordings of classical music and opera and they have outdone themselves again with this one. It features virtuoso singers at the top of their game and the orchestra is directed under the baton of the seasoned conductor Julius Rudel. Singing the three heroines Olympia, Giuletta and Antonia is the incredible Beverly Sills whose dynamics are the real gem in this recording, singing the hopeless romantic Hoffman is lyric tenor Stuart Burrows and singing the diabolical villains is the unsurpassed baritone Norman Treigle. These same singers, among them mezzo soprano Susan Marsee in the role of Nicklausse and the Muse, have performed The Tales Of Hoffman many times and made it popular here in America, where it might have become obscure and neglected or rarely performed. But thanks to the efforts of Beverly Sills and her New York City Opera group, this opera is here to stay.

  Jacques Offenbach's opera was drawn from three seperate stories by writer E.T.A. Hoffman ( a fantasy and horror novelist of the 19th century who was like the Stephen King of his day) The story follows the bohemian and unlucky-in-love poet Hoffman finally getting his one big chance at love when he receives a letter from the opera diva Stella to meet him at a bar. The scheming Councilor Lindorf (whom we are lead to believe is the Devil incarnate and who has ruined Hoffman's oppurtunities at love many times before) has intercepted the letter and decides to foil Hoffman's chance at love once more. Sure enough, Hoffman comes into the tavern and in his depressed mood, drinks himself under the table, but not before telling his melancholy tales of thwarted love. The first is a blind love with a robotic doll (Olympia)which is shattered when he realizes she was only an invention from the inventor he worked for, the second (Giuletta)with a materialistic Venetian courtesan who dumps him and the last, true love with the sickly daughter of a violin-maker and an opera diva (Antonia) who sings to her death.

  Beverly Sills, Stuart Burrows and Norman Treigle are the real strength behind this recording. They had performed together before in 1965, when they first launched the opera to New York City and to American audiences, including New Orleans. Stuart Burrows as Hoffman is a perfect combination of romantic despair, tender love and "tenor di grazie" lyricism- just listen to Burrows singing "O Dieu De Quelle Ivresse" and all of his duets with Beverly Sills. Norman Treigle's dark baritone vocal style is similar to Samuel Ramey. In fact, Norman Treigle most influenced Samuel Ramey. Norman Treigle was the lead baritone of the New York City Opera, an evil, diabolical timbre to his voice, sinister laughter and snarl in his voice makes him the best interpretor of the villains- Lindorf, Coppelius, Dappertuto and Dr. Miracle. Just listen to Treigle on fire in the arias - "Dans le role de amoreux", "Scintille Diamant" and his part in the trio in which as Dr. Miracle, he casts a dark spell over Antonia, who together with the ghost of her mother, is spurred to sing to her fatal demise.

  Last but certainly not least, Beverly Sills. She is the best interpretor of the heroines. Everyone is free to make their own picks for favorites and for their choice of the best. The threesome roles have been performed by such celebrated artists as Joan Sutherland and Edita Gruberova. Beverly Sills has got to be acknowledged. She knew the three heroine parts even as a very young girl, her French diction was perfect and even enhanced by the fact she was fluent in the French language, her versatility is proven in the different type of singing for the Hoffman women-mechanical, wooden, comedic and full of firework coloratura as Olympia, seductive and cruel as Giuletta and hapless, romantic and frail as Antonia (her version of Elle e fui La Turterelle and her Death Scene with Dr. Miracle is by far the best). Kudos to Deutsche Grammophon for resurfacing this brilliant recording....more info

• The Most Romantic French Opera
  "The French are glad to die for love" is a line from the song Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend. In the case of the tenor hero in Offenbach's Tales Of Hoffman, this rings very true. Taken from a collection of stories by E.T.A. Hoffman, and the protoganist being himself Hoffman, it was Offenbach's swan song, his final opera and testament to his brilliance in the operatic theater. With all the charm of his earlier operettas, and with the darker stylings of serious opera, it is a moving experience. In this 1971 recording, we find everything perfect, a blend of fine score orchestration by Julius Rudel and the vocal talents of Beverly Sills, Stuart Burrows and Norman Treigle. Beverly Sills sings all three heroines, one of the rare breed of sopranos who do this, with the exception of Joan Sutherland, although Sills has a better dramatic flair and vocal beauty than Sutherland. If you listen closely, for this recording, she also sings the mezzo soprano role of Nicklausse, so she sings four women in total! What a remarkable woman Beverly is! Norman Treigle was the reigning baritone of New York City, a fine actor and the equivalent of Samuel Ramey today. In this recording, he portrays all the villains to perfection, diabolic timbres resonate in his voice, he laughs with evil inflection and is a fine actor. Stuart Burrows' Hoffman is his finest performance. He evokes a man in love, his tenor arias are embellished with charm and grace.

  In Act I, after Treigle shows up in the tavern, belting out his villainous aria "Dans les roles d'amoureaux" where he says "Comme un Diable" (like a Devil), Hoffman enters and regales his drunking buddies with the tales of his loves, while also entertaining them with the legend of Kleizach. He then proceeds to tell the tales of his three loves, eventhough it's all clearly fiction.

  In Act 2, Hoffman becomes an apprentice to the inventor Spalanzani, whose assistant is a robot named Cochenille. Hoffman mistakes Spalanzani's latest creation, a pretty doll, for his daughter. This illusion is further produced when the evil Coppelius gives Hoffman glasses to deceive him (J'ai des yeux). At the party Spalanzani throws, his robotic daughter Olympia sings the charming coloratura aria "Les Oiseaux". It is full of embellished trills up and down the vocal scale, and she winds down suddenly before she is wound up again to finish the song. Beverly's rendition is quite pretty, perhaps more true to Offenbach's original operetta take on the art song. When Coppelius takes revenge on Spalanzani who has not proved good on his former money deal, he takes revenge and breaks Olympia, causing Hoffman the ridicule of having loved an automaton. His shouts of "Un Automaton!" is exceptional. One can make the argument that for Offenbach, his last operetta had died with Olympia. Olympia's character, though shallow and insubstantial, can represent, if we analyze deeply, the innocent woman (Hoffman himself says in the opera she was an innocent), the shallow, trophy wife, naive young society girl who was trained in the French Second Empire 19th century to look as pretty as a doll, to entertain house guests and to have not much to say other than "Oui" "Yes!".

  In Act 3, Hoffman finds himself in Venice. Here, among the company of gondoliers, merrymakers and a beautiful courtesan, Giuletta, he sings a rousing brindisi (Amis, l'amour tendre et reveur error (my friends, falling in love is a big mistake!) in which he vows never to love another woman for risk of feeling heartbreak. But Dappertuto, an evil magician, wants Hoffman's soul and makes Giuletta seduce Hoffman for his reflection. It does not take long before Hoffman serenades Giuletta with his signature love theme, "O Dieu di quelle ivresse!". Hoffman gives up his soul, and upon discovery of this, a beautiful ensemble ensues, the sextet chorus "Helas, mon couer" (Alas, my heart has once again deceived me). The opera ends with the chorus take on how it began, the Barcarolle. Giuletta abandons Hoffman and the villain wins again.

  In Act 4, Hoffman follows Crespel, a violin maker, and his daugther Antonia (whom he loves) to Munich. Antonia's mother was a great opera singer, but died mysteriously of consumption after a check up from the sinister quack doctor, Miracle. Hoffman convinces Antonia not to sing again, lest she risk her own life, and they propose to elope. But Dr. Miracle makes her sing when a portrait of her mother shouts "Cher, Enfante, que j'appelle" (dear child, I call to you!). Beverly Sills takes on the moment brilliantly, as Dr. Miracle urges her to sing more dramatically with the swelling of violin chords, and Beverly shouts " Et que mon ame vole aux cieux (and my soul rises to heaven), a blazing high note that sounds like a shooting star at the end of track 21. Antonia dies. Hoffman is blamed and Dr. Miracle's baritone voice sounds its most ghastliest when he pronounces "Morte!". Finally, in the last act, Hoffman finishes his tales and has drunk himself stupid. He hallucinates about the Muse who inspires him and pledges his love for her, eventhough Stella, the woman he genuinely loved and made into all three heroines in his fiction, goes to pick him up but abandons him in the arms of the villain.

  A romantic work of opera and theater that is not to be missed. This is also Beverly Sill's finest works, right along side her Three Queens and Manon. Beverly Sills' French repertoire was her favorite and the most easily vocally. It also provided her with fine acting. Five Stars well deserved. Who cares if this is not the "complete" edition. It is still highly entertaining....more info

• Flawed, but with its pleasures
  LES CONTES D'HOFFMANN
  
  This is not the Best HOFFMAN you can get. That would probably be the Camberling, with Neil Shicoff (Not availble on this site, except in Highlight form.) or the first set conducted by Cluntyes with Jouban. This set may be a nice way to experience Hoffmann if you haven't heard the others, and there are aspects of the recording that are really quite excellent, but there are several major flaws.
  The good news first: The Conducting is in the capable hands of Julius Rudel, who knows just what to do with the score. The London Symphony Orchestra plays excellently, and there is great choral work from the John Alldis Choir.
  More good news: Beverly Sills is divine. She attempts all four heroines here, including the spoken role of Stella. As Olympia, she does not go for the dazzling, optional high notes Sutherland, Doria and Dessay reach on other recordings, but her comic performance of the "Doll Song" is enchanting. Sills was always at home with comedy (see her on the muppet show to see what I mean) and Olympia is definetly a highlight of the performance. She is also highly satisfactory as the other two heroines ,her voice effortlessly and expertly conveying the two different women. She is at her dramatic best as Guiletta, and her work in the Barcarolle and the love duet is ravishing. Antonia's aria is whistful and the love duet and trio are both excellent. For a soprano to handle all three heroines capably is rare. Grubernova had enough dramatic insight and vocal beauty to pull of the rudiments of each role, but I've never been a big fan of hers. Sutherland tried, gave out a fine Olympia and disappointed in the other roles. Sills may not be the greatest trio of heroines (Doria, Bouvay and Bou¨¦ for Cluntyes get that honor), but she is easily the most successful of the three sopranos who have attempted all three roles.
  As the four Villains, Norman Treigle is electrifying. His Dappertutto is hypotic, his Lindorf oozing smile, his Coppelius creepy, and his Miracle downright frightening. He is especaily good in the men's trio in the third act. Susanne Marsee handles the music of Nicklausse and the muse's dialogue well, but never really gets beyond "good," as such mezzos and Tourangeau, Murray and Reviol do. She does blend very well with Sills in the barcarolle.
  And the bad news: As Hoffman, Stuart Burrows may sing well enough, but his acting leaves something to be desired. Okay, who am I kidding? This is probably his least satisfactory traversal on records. He doesn't even try to portray the tourtured genius Hoffmann is. Nowehere is the anguish of the poets soul or the passion that drives him to self-destruction. Surrounded by the talent voicing his loves, his nemeses and his companion, he cannot help but seem lost in the shuffle.
  Nico Castel handels Franz effortlessly, but seems, for some reason, uncomfortable in the monosyllabic utterings of Andres and Pittichinaccio. He sings Spalanzani instead of Cochenille in the Olympia act, hamming it up horribly. He also is the only Spalanzani on records to be completely unfunny.
  The always reliable Robert Lloyd delivers an excellent Crespel and Patricia Kern sings well as the Mother. Raimund Herincx could be better as Schemil, but is fine as Hermann. It's depressing when the only person giving a wholly successful performance in the tenor cleft is the Nathaneal/Cochenille, Bernard Dickerson who provides strong support (On the Covent Garden video of the Opera with Domingo, he sings Frantz to great effect) . The chorus work is well done as well. I give it 4/5 stars, a full point taken off for Burrows' acting and another fraction for Castel's hamming as Spalanzani...more info
• My Favourite opera
  With the recent loss to the opera world of Beverly Sills I had to put something here.This was the very first opera recording I heard on LP and it transfixed me ..from that day on I was caught in the opera web of music great women and men and wonderful stories.I believe we have lost much through not having recordings of earlier productions of this work especially with Triegal her favourtie Dr .Sills is for me the best exponent of Offenbachs tales as she has the ability to change with each role.I for one will sorely miss her comic nuances and her effortless singing.Thankyou Ms Sills for everything...more info
• My Favorite Hoffman, Hands Down
  On a Texaco Metropolitan Opera broadcast, a panelist of the opera quiz was asked what opera he would choose if he was stranded on a desert island. He selected THE TALES OF HOFFMAN since there are so many versions of the opera, as well as a mention of DON GIOVANNI., he would easily have more than one opera. Since Offenbach died before an official version was completed, there are a number of versions of the opera. This production, starring Beverly Sills as Stella and the major heroines: Olympia, Giulietta, and Antonia, under the direction of conductor Julius Rudel, is the standard version of the work. If I could only take one version of this opera on a desert island, this recording would definitely be my choice.

  I became familiar with this red cording when it was released on cassette by EMI. Hoffman, sung by tenor Stuart Burrows, is a down on his luck writer who is madly in love with the beautiful actress Stella. His love life is in shambles and he is an alcoholic to boot. He goes to a tavern to tell three tales, and the tales somehow reflect the pain he feels caused by his love for Stella. Burrows is a gifted tenor and he sings the role with both ease and dramatic gifts. Sills as the three heroines is perhaps at he bets and easily handles the challenges of the three roles. Julius Rudel keeps the score moving and is aided by the great London Symphony Orchestra and the equally great John Aldis Choir.

  Anyone who peruses through the various HOFFMAN offerings will notice a variety of editions. While this is not a critical edition, I do find it the version which flows the best. I also have a number of HOFFMAN recordings with Neil Shicoff, Francisco Araiza, and Placido Domingo in the title role. While each recording has its strengths, this is the one I enjoy most. The tempo is upbeat, the singing first rate, and the orchestra and chorus are excellent. Who could ask for more?...more info