Niklausse Susan Parry Luther David Marsh Villains John Tomlinson Beloveds Rosa Mannion Hoffman Julian Gavin Servants Andrew Forbes-Lane Spalanzani Terry Jenkins Crespel David Marsh Antonia's mother Jean Rigby Schlemil Riccardo Simonetti Conductor Paul Daniel Director Graham Vick Translation John Wells, completed by Graham Vick I was looking forward to this, because I've never seen a live Hoffmann though I've been listening to it for thirty years and really like the Powell and Pressburger film. Then I started to worry. The last thing I said I was looking forward to was the newly-reconstructed print of Sodom and Gomorrah, directed in Vienna in 1921 by the future Michael Curtiz. It stank. But I enjoyed this a lot. This production is new to the ENO, though I think it's been done somewhere else. The setting is the naughty (18)90's and the belle epoque, rather vaguely, with lots of surreal touches. It's actually somewhat similar to Christoper Alden's Damnation of Faust, including a giant pair of legs representing das Ewigweibliche, but much more lightly done. John Tomlinson's villains, especially Dr Coppelius in loud check suit, are very Mefistophelean. (I wonder if he can whistle?) I suppose both works are French perspectives on German romanticism, but I'm not sure how much that explains. I heard several people saying variants of "it's just like the old days". The set consisted of the shell of Luther's tavern, with a balcony all round. The centre of the set opened up as an apron and stage-on-the-stage for the stories. Olympia was done with Spalanzani as a mad scientist and everybody else in brightly coloured belle epoque costumes, except for Cochenille, who was in britches. Antonia was done in Victorian style (piano, drapes, Antonia in Alice hair and sailor suit). Giulietta was done in a fin-de-siecle brothel with bondage gear and the rest. The Muse started off with long blond hair, singing in deep chest like Dietrich, then changed on stage into the conventional androgynous suit. Susan Parry is ideal in appearance as well as vocally for this role (though I still think P&P got Nicklausse exactly right with Pamela Brown in spite of the lack of real booziness and all the other oddities of their version). The translation was mainly done by the late John Wells, whose Dear Bill pieces in Private Eye showed what a superb grasp of drinking and drinkers he had. Hoffmann at one point talks about being in the gutter looking at the stars, and I think there were several more allusions to dear Oscar, whom Hoffman resembled. Most of the arias were done in neat rhymes, nothing contorted and apparently quite singable. Though I couldn't hear enough of the words to judge for certain, except for Tomlinson's. In fact, John Tomlinson pretty much ran away with this performance in most respects, though the ensemble was impressive and no-one was less than fine. Tomlinson has the advantage of being loud and clear and theatrical, and a shaky Welsh accent for Dr Miracle apart, did everything with great relish and style. Julian Gavin was suitably intense and unstable as Hoffman, not quite a parody of a romantic tenor. Jean Rigby (in a classic Callas costume) was beautiful as Antonia's mother. The production ended rather quietly with Hoffmann sitting down to write it all instead of making himself miserable by living it. I couldn't quite work out the motivation of the Muse here -- she effective connives with the villains, in the plot and in this production, to make Hoffmann miserable, but it's being miserable that makes him a romantic poet. Conventional love poetry since Catullus has been the voice of the immature creep. Is it just that he has to stop at some point and write? Similarly, I've never understood why Nicklausse sings the Barcarolle, unless it's simply to wind Hoffmann up to insult Giulietta. I don't think the ending was one I've ever heard before. The version used contained quite a bit of material not in the usual recordings, including a much more melodramatic setting of Scintille, diamante. It excluded the act 4 sextet. (The full details are in the programme. Anyone interested, please let me know.)