In the beginning of this year I saw Jacques Offenbach’s “La Belle Hélène” in Istanbul and now it was the turn of “The Tales of Hoffmann” in the Finnish National Opera. As so often today, it wasn’t National Opera’s own production, but that of Semperoper Dresden. Opera productions are not exactly cheap and by performing the same production in several cities, they can share the costs. Offenbach did not finish “The Tales of Hoffmann” before his death, so there exist several versions of this opera, where even the acts can be in different order.
I liked this version of “The Tales of Hoffmann” even though the story line of the opera is, to put it mildly, weird. The artist Hoffmann tells about the loves of his life, who are Olympia (mechanic doll), Antonia (who has a disease that kills her, when she sings) and Giulietta (a courtesan). Who an earth would fall in love with an ordinary woman in an opera!
The set design was made by Heike Scheele and the costume design was by Gesine Völlm. In my opinion both had succeeded in their tasks. I also liked Johannes Erath’s direction on the general level. He used the whole stage of the National Opera and both the soloist and the choir sometimes also sang from the first balcony. Especially the choir sounded impressive when it sang from the first balcony. The choir of the Finnish National Opera is – as I have mentioned many times before – excellent level.
Contrary to the info on National Opera’s website, in the last performance of The Tales of Hoffmann the role of Hoffmann was sung by Dominik Sutowicz, not by Mika Pohjonen, for which I was really happy. The strong voice of Sutowicz suited this role perfectly. He may have not been stunning in the finer details, but when the female cast was so good, it did not really disturb me much. So the evening belonged to the ladies. First thing the lovely Muse, that is Jenny Carlstedt, hit the jackpot singing from the first row like an angel and she continued on the same level throughout the opera no matter where she sang (on the stage or from the first balcony). What an excellent voice and superb acting! The role of Olympia was sung by Rocio Pèrez and again the audience could only gasp for breath out of admiration. Olympia’s aria is super difficult to sing, but Pèrez made it without any difficulties and between the verses she even danced on her toes just like ballet dancer! Honestly! Not all opera singers are able to do that. The role of Antonia was sung by Helena Juntunen and she was the third bullseye in the female roles. So beautiful singing and her acting – once again pitch perfect! And even if Measha Brueggergosman was quite good in the role of Giulietta, somehow she managed to be overshadowed by the other three ladies. In any normal production she would probably have been the greatest star, but in this production there were already three brighter stars twinkling on the stage.
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