[Met Performance] CID:271220
Les Contes d'Hoffmann {157} Metropolitan Opera House: 01/13/1983.
(Debut: Lesley Koenig
Review)
Metropolitan Opera House
January 13, 1983
LES CONTES D'HOFFMANN {157}
Jacques Offenbach-Jules Barbier
Hoffmann................Kenneth Riegel
Olympia.................Gianna Rolandi
Giulietta...............Tatiana Troyanos
Antonia.................Catherine Malfitano
Stella..................Pauline Andrey
Lindorf.................James Morris
Coppélius...............James Morris
Dappertutto.............James Morris
Dr. Miracle.............James Morris
Nicklausse..............Ariel Bybee
Muse....................Ariel Bybee
Andrès..................Andrea Velis
Cochenille..............Andrea Velis
Pitichinaccio...........Andrea Velis
Frantz..................Andrea Velis
Luther..................William Fleck
Nathanael...............Michael Best
Hermann.................John Darrenkamp
Spalanzani..............Anthony Laciura
Schlemil................Morley Meredith
Crespel.................John Macurdy
Mother's Voice..........Lili Chookasian
Conductor...............Julius Rudel
Production..............Otto Schenk
Stage Director..........Lesley Koenig [Debut]
Set designer............Günther Schneider-Siemssen
Costume designer........Gaby Frey
Lighting designer.......Gil Wechsler
Les Contes d'Hoffmann received eleven performances this season.
Review (unsigned) in the Passaic New Jersey Herald-News
'Hoffmann' provides charms and shivers
"The Tales of Hoffmann" returned to the Metropolitan Opera Thursday night, with a doll who could charm and a third act which could give shivers.
Kenneth Riegel of West Hamburg, Pa., was Hoffmann. His voice was clear and focused, with pleasing timbre. Even when he was singing high, he didn't sound constricted. He doesn't immediately take command of the stage in the prologue, but he holds his own thereafter.
Gianna Rolandi was Olympia, the mechanical doll of Act One and, Hoffmann's first love. She proved, as has Beverly Sills, that a soprano doesn't have to be tiny to be good in this part. Rolandi sang splendidly, played it a little less broadly than Sills did and proved just as funny, or funnier.
Tatiana Troyanos was Giulietta of the second act. The famous "Barcarole" of this act isn't the best part of it. We think it's the duet between hero and villain, then Giulietta joining in, then addition of the chorus, just before the end.
James Morris varied his sound as he played all the villains. He sang in a rich, juicy way in the prologue, sounded seductively evil in Act Two and was cold and implacable in Act Three.
He and Catherine Malfitano, the girl he is destroying in Act Three, starkly lighted, their faces white, he in black leather and she in white, are a chilling sight, gesturing toward each other with great tension across the stage. Her mother, meanwhile, sung with persuasive power by Lili Chookasian, is the only spot of color in the scene inside a picture frame, a portrait come to life. Malfitano projected a trained but unspoiled sound, perfect for her "dear young lady" part.
Andrea Velis, with deft comic timing, had four parts. The mechanical doll only backhanded him once after he wound her up; thereafter he ducked. And, in the last act, as an old servant trying to practice ballet, he lands one leg atop a table.