Organization

Bregenzer Festspiele

Singer

Soprano

Kerstin Avemo

Olympia

Juliet

Mandy Fredrich

Antonia

Mezzo-soprano

Rachel Frenkel

Nicklausse

Voice of Antonia's mother/The voice from the grave

Bass-baritone

Michael Volle

Lindorf

Coppelius

Miracle

Dapertutto

Bass

Ketil Hugaas

Crespel

Luther

Tenor

Christophe Mortagne

Andrès

Cochineal

Frantz

Pitichinaccio

Daniel Johansson

Hoffmann

Bengt-Ola Morgny

Spalanzani

Conductor

Johannes Debus

Stage director

Stefan Herheim

Set designer

Christof Hetzer

Costume designer

Esther Bialas

Chorus master

Lukáš Vasilek

Dramaturge

Olaf A Schmitt

Others

Philharmonischer Chor Prag

Orchestra

Vienna Symphony Orchestra

French

Les contes d'Hoffmann -  (The Tales of Hoffmann)

Bregenz

Austria

Bregenzer Festspielhaus

Werkstattbühne

"The opera visit of the year - Bregenz shows "The Tales of Hoffmann", which will make you forget everything you have seen so far." (FAZ)

Stefan Herheim's new production of Jacques Offenbach's opera Les Contes d'Hoffmann (Tales of Hoffmann) at the Bregenz Festival was received by an enthusiastic audience with standing ovations and frenetic applause and really shines with creativity. The international press wholeheartedly agreed: The New York Times praised the "thoughtfulness and creativity" of the new production, which the director conceived as a quest for self in a scintillating drag show.

The story of the poet and philosopher Hoffmann, who cannot write without alcohol and cannot live without love, tells of his past affairs with various women and his search for love that can never be.

Conductor Johannes Debus leads the Wiener Symphoniker through the evening with verve. A "radiant" (NYT) Hoffmann is played by tenor Daniel Johansson in the title role. He is supported by a fantastic cast: "Rachel Frenkel is absolutely ideal as Muse and Niklausse" (Kurier), Kerstin Avemo as Olympia "equipped with brilliant, boldly sung coloraturas" (Neue Zürcher Zeitung), Michael Volle sings the roles of Lindorf, Coppelius, Dr. Miracle and Dappertutto, "the work's four villains, with warmth and intensity" (NYT) and Mandy Fredrich is a "finely-phrased Antonia" (Kurier).

Herheim risks much and wins everything, making this staging a thoroughly successful and genuinely suspenseful operatic experience, one that ushers in so strongly "that we can scarcely catch our breath until the world of the drunken genius and desperate lover lies in ruins", come to this the Neue Zürcher Zeitung and the Süddeutsche Zeitung: "A stroke of genius, a milestone in the history of the staging of this work!"

If you need proof that the Bregenz Opera Prize for "Festival of the Year" is justified, look no further.

Photos