Product Description
The Tales of Hoffmann (French: Les contes dHoffmann) is a fantastical opera (opéra fantastique) composed by Jacques Offenbach. The French libretto, written by Jules Barbier, is based on three short stories by the German author E. T. A. Hoffmann, who also appears as the protagonist in the opera. This was Offenbachs final composition; he passed away in October 1880, just four months before its premiere.
Composition History and Inspiration
The opera traces its origins back to a play titled Les contes fantastiques dHoffmann, co-written by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré and staged at the Odéon Theatre in Paris in 1851.
Following his return from a trip to America in 1876, Offenbach discovered that Barbier had adapted the earlier play into a libretto. Composer Hector Salomon had begun setting it to music for the Opéra but eventually passed the project on to Offenbach. Progress was gradual, as Offenbach paused frequently to compose more commercially successful lighter works. He reportedly had a premonitionmuch like Antonia, the doomed heroine in Act IIthat he would not live to complete the opera.
Offenbach worked on The Tales of Hoffmann until his final days in 1880 and even attended some of the early rehearsals. On October 5 of that year, he died while holding the manuscript in his hands. Not long before his passing, he wrote a heartfelt plea to director Léon Carvalho:
Hâtez-vous de monter mon opéra. Il ne me reste plus longtemps à vivre et mon seul désir est d'assister à la première.
("Hurry up and stage my opera. I do not have much time left, and my only wish is to attend the premiere.")
Literary Sources
The opera draws from three of Hoffmanns original stories:
Der Sandmann (The Sandman, 1816)
Rath Krespel (Councillor Krespel, also known in English as The Cremona Violin, 1818)
Das verlorene Spiegelbild (The Lost Reflection) from Die Abenteuer der Sylvester-Nacht (The Adventures of New Years Eve, 1814)
These tales were masterfully woven together to form the opera's three acts, each exploring love, loss, and illusion through the lens of Hoffmanns vivid imagination.
This arrangement of Barcarolle from "Tales of Hoffmann," is for solo flute.
This product was created by a member of ArrangeMe, Hal Leonard's global self-publishing community of independent composers, arrangers, and songwriters. ArrangeMe allows for the publication of unique arrangements of both popular titles and original compositions from a wide variety of voices and backgrounds.