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4 unusual facts about The Tales of Hoffmann


Cynthia Makris

She received an award in 1982 from the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia for her performance of the three heroines in The Tales of Hoffmann.

Evgeny Brazhnik

Since 1999 he works for the Helikon Opera and by 2012 became the Golden Mask recipient for his conducting of The Tales of Hoffmann which was performed in Moscow's Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theatre.

Per Åhlin

His personal dream project, which has been in development since 1992, is the feature film Hoffmanns ögon ("Hoffmann's eyes"), which is based on Jacques Offenbach's opera The Tales of Hoffmann.

Vanni Marcoux

This was followed by his debut at the Chicago Grand Opera Company in 1913, as the four villains in Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann, which is considered one of his greatest histrionic achievements.


Elizabeth Fretwell

In 1954, she sang Antonia in Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann before Queen Elizabeth II who was on her first tour of Australia.

Elsie Morison

She was admired for the touching sincerity of her acting and the lyrical warmth of her voice, in such roles as Susanna (The Marriage of Figaro), Pamina (The Magic Flute), Marzelline (Fidelio), Micaela (Carmen), Antonia (The Tales of Hoffmann), Marenka (The Bartered Bride), and Blanche in the British premiere of Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites in 1958.

Freddie Francis

Some of the films he worked on during this period include The Elusive Pimpernel (1950), The Tales of Hoffmann (1951), Beat the Devil (1953), and Moby Dick (1956); he was a frequent collaborator with cinematographers Christopher Challis (nine films) and Oswald Morris (five films).

Joyce Barker

She also performed in Ireland for one season with roles in The Tales of Hoffmann (Offenbach), The Marriage of Figaro (Mozart), and La bohème (Puccini).

Renée Doria

After singing Constance in The Abduction from the Seraglio in Cannes under Reynaldo Hahn, and the three heroines (Olympia, Giulietta, Antonia) in Les contes d'Hoffmann in Strasbourg, opposite the great French bass-baritone Vanni Marcoux, she made her Paris debut at the Gaîté-Lyrique in 1943, as Lakmé, and the following year, made her debut at the Opéra-Comique, in the same role.

Robert Tear

Roles he sang on disc range in diversity from Uriel in Haydn's "Creation" to the painter in Alban Berg's Lulu, and from Pitichinaccio in Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann to Sir Harvey in Donizetti's Anna Bolena.


see also