When was the tales of hoffman written

It took Offenbach over 20 years to write this masterpiece, which is undoubtedly the most accomplished of his repertoire. The Tales are, in many respects, an abrupt departure from Offenbach's earlier compositions. Especially in Antonia's act, they demonstrate a dramatic force that nothing else in his repertoire can match. This is largely due to the libretto.

Ernst Theodore Amadeus Hoffmann was an early-nineteenth-century Romantic writer. In his tales and novels, he introduced what Freud would later analyse in a article as the concept of "disturbing strangeness". This concept is present in the material used to write the libretto for The Tales of Hoffmann , where it can be seen in the eruption of strange, fantastical events in everyday life.

In his famous article, Freud talks about the tale called The Sandman , published in , and more specifically the character of a mechanical doll called Olympia who is the "daughter" of the physics professor Spalanzani , to clarify the concept of disturbing strangeness. One evening, he is approached by a mysterious peddlar who sells him a lorgnette. He glimpses the young girl through the lorgnette, is spellbound by the beauty of her eyes and burns with desire for her.

At the coming-out ball Spalanzani organises for his daughter, the young student tells her he loves her, but does not obtain any real response. Ann Ayars Antonia as Antonia. Pamela Brown Nicklaus as Nicklaus. Robert Helpmann Lindorf as Lindorf …. Frederick Ashton Kleinsach as Kleinsach ….

Mogens Wieth Crespel as Crespel. Lionel Harris Pitichinaccio as Pitichinaccio. Meinhart Maur Luther as Luther. Michael Powell Emeric Pressburger. More like this. Storyline Edit. The opera dramatises the three great romances in the life of the poet-hero presented in a series of flashbacks.

Hoffmann's tales depict the struggle between human love and the artist's dedication to his work. Hoffmann loses each of the women he loves but gains instead poetic inspiration -- the ability to transform painful experiences into art. Fantasy Music Musical Romance. Not Rated. Did you know Edit. Trivia George A. Goofs Giulietta's necklace is turned from jewels to wax by Dapertutto, however, in a longer shot, it is briefly shown as jewels again, before a close-up, where it is wax again until Dapertutto changes it back to jewels.

Quotes Chorus of Students : Some drink, drink, drink, drink, drink: do you hear us about? Crazy credits In the end credits, main actors appear taking curtain calls next to the singers who dubbed them.

Alternate versions The complete minute version was available in 16mm black and white early television prints. The complete minute version was also available in 16mm Kodachrome color rental prints.

The complete minute soundtrack was available for many years on LP London Records. The Tales of Hoffmann features three stages in the sentimental life of a man, three stories forming one unclassifiable opera, a masterpiece of French romanticism, a maze of dizziness and frivolity. With the singer Antonia, he was Doctor Miracle, a maleficent charlatan whose advice struck down the girl, thereby killing the mad love Hoffman had for her.

But Giulietta has fled, and jealousy and crime are blended in this sordid and once again disastrous story. The poet Hoffmann has taken it into his head to recount his love affairs - three ill-fated loves stymied by three maleficent characters, perhaps all the very same incarnation of the Devil, perhaps the disturbing councillor Lindorf who lurks about mocking him. Hoffmann, now drunk, starts to sing of the legend of Kleinzach before he is overcome by this sad passions.

Dazzled by the beauty of Olympia, whom Doctor Spalanzani has introduced maliciously, Hoffmann allows himself to be blinded: this Olympia he loves is a mechanical doll!

A robot! With a very limited vocabulary but nonetheless capable of reciting some delightful couplets in her shrill voice.