A wind-up doll, a scheming courtesan, and a girl singing herself to death:  these are the obsessions of the poet E.T.A. Hoffmann, whose tales of disastrous love comprise Jacques Offenbach’s “Les Contes d’Hoffmann”.  This masterpiece of late French Romantic opera, described as opéra fantastique, is a magical journey through the poet’s past and his own psyche, showcasing some of opera’s most brilliant vocal fireworks, as well as such memorable ensembles as the tuneful Barcarolle.

In this course, we will view videos and historic recordings of the opera; the use of bilingual (French-English) video-subtitles and libretti will introduce and/or reinforce salient aspects of the beautiful French language, while deepening appreciation of that interrelationship between the music and the language which is unique to opera.

The instructor will host an optional trip to Lincoln Center, NY, for the Metropolitan Opera’s glittering production (Sunday, October 13, 3:00 p.m.), and to the HD screening of the October 5 production (Saturday, 1:00 p.m., October 5: Regal movie theater, North Brunswick, NJ).
 

Text: All required materials will be supplied by the instructor. Recommended Texts (available on-line from Amazon): Offenbach's “Les Contes d'Hoffmann” Opera Study Guide with Libretto (Burton D. Fisher, Opera Classics Library: 2017), ISBN-10:194231762X / ISBN-13:978-1942317623; Collins Gem French Dictionary (English and French Edition: 2016), ISBN-10:0008141878 / ISBN-13: 978-0008141875).