Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann is a rather difficult opera to stage.  There’s no definitive performing edition and there’s a lot of (too much?) material to work with so decisions have to be made about what to cut.  There’s also the fundamental problem of how to frame the stories of Hoffman’s three great loves as he’s supposed to be recounting them in a bar, while drunk, some years after the events described.  Plus, there is some sense that all three are really just projections of his current infatuation; the opera singer Stella.

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