Tim Hopkins Mid-Wales opera production of Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffman at the Courtyard, Hereford

1:27pm Tuesday 11th November 2008

TIM Hopkins’s touring production of Offenbach’s last opera The Tales of Hoffmann, staged by Mid-Wales Opera at The Courtyard on Wednesday, November 5, offered an ingenious take on this tricky work.

The plot centres on the musings of its main character, the German Romantic writer E T A Hoffmann, who concocts a fantasy world peopled by transformations of his real-world associates.

Anthony Baker’s clever set resembles a large book, upon whose open, hand-scrawled pages the characters slip in and out of reality, usually via a large cupboard – shades, perhaps, of Dr Caligari’s cabinet. Hoffmann’s writing-desk turns into a stage upon which various imaginary scenes are enacted, including the famous coloratura aria for the mechanical doll Olympia, one of the three fictional incarnations (Olympia, Antonia and Giulietta) of Hoffmann’s paramour Stella. All were sung with magical bravura by Rebecca Ryan. Wyn Pencarreg’s impressively resonant bass gave us Hoffmann’s rival Lindorf and his alter-egos – Coppelius, who destroys Olympia when he realises he isn’t going to get back the money he invested in her (good jokes here about bust banks!), the sinister Dr Miracle and the evil, pimpish manipulator Dapertutto. Hoffmann himself was the splendidly tireless tenor James Edwards, and the outstanding Carolyn Dobbin was his Muse, who hovers around disguised as his companion Nicklaus. Other roles were sung strongly throughout, and even if the ten-piece pit ensemble could hardly be expected to realise Offenbach’s full orchestral score at its most voluptuous, the playing was exemplary. The whole performance was held together with customary skill by Mid-Wales Opera’s artistic director and conductor Keith Darlington. John Rushby-Smith