The Tales of Hoffmann
1951

Tales of Hoffmann

This is Powell and Pressburger’s filmic opera (although it is far less Pressburger). Like the Red Shoes, the idea was to make a filmed version of an opera, much the way the Red Shoes is a filmed version of a ballet. Unlike Red Shoes, in which the 15 minute ballet sequences is only a small part of the film, this film is nothing but the opera.

As a result of the film being solely the opera, the text is not Pressburger’s. He was there when some of the cuts were being made, and he made some suggestions about some transitions, but by and large the text is pretty much set by the author of the libretto.

None the less, the text does have changes in it which make it a specific version of the opera and Pressburger was involved with those. One example is the change of the “soprano” in the Prologue of a “ballet dancer”; another deals with the substitution of a statue for a painting and there are other similar changes. The opera was cut in length and the opening ballet sequence is new. (Such changes are not unusual with this opera, since a final version had not been produced when the composer died)

Also unlike The Red Shoes, where the dancers are really dancers, in this film only some of the performers are actually opera singers. Hence the physicality of the singing is lost when one “lip synchs” the opera. For some this is anathema. It has been said that the amount of energy that is needed to sing Isolde in Tristan and Isolde is as great as the amount needed to run a marathon. However, true to Powell’s ideas of a “composed film” The music was all recorded before the shooting began.

The idea of doing an opera is certainly the final extension of Powell’s “composed film”. For most people, opera is primarily an auditory experience – one goes to “hear” and opera, not to “see” it. The sound track was recorded by Thomas Beecham before the film was shot and as a result, the films was cut to the music in the final development of Powell’s idea of a “composed film”

Remember that Powell always said he was the “story teller” not the person who wrote the story (interpretive rather than creative artist. When Pressburger tried his hand at directing (Twice Upon a Time) according to all reports, it was a pretty dismal disaster

What do you think about Powell’s “Independent frame” idea relative to this film?

Some of our old friends appear in the cast again: Moira Shearer (Red Shoes), Robert Helpmann (One of Our Aircraft is Missing; Red Shoes) Pamela Brown (IKWIG and One of our aircraft is missing) Leonide Massine (Red Shoes) in singing roles which they themselves do not sing.

Sir Thomas Beecham, bart (baronet) abd CH (companions of honor) who conducted the orchestra for the Red Shoes Ballet

The crew has in it many we know already:

The problems of filming a stage work without looking like it is the filming of a stage performance are tricky at best. In addition, opera has a rhythm which is set by the composer. Opera, like many stage performances is quite capable for producing many special effects which are in one sense more dramatic since they are “live”, although such techniques as we see now where not always available when the film was made.

Opera comes in many forms from rather short operas like Gianni Schicchi running less than an hour to massively long ones like Parsifal which may run over 6 hours. The music is generally more complex in opera than in musicals and the techniques used to sing it are rather different. Many poplar singers “belt” the music whereas opera requires a different style of vocal production. The result is there is an “operatic” version of West Side Story sung by opera singers and a Broadway version done by singers more associated with the musicals and popular music.

Many operas (although not all) are “through composed” (durchkomponiert) and lack the spoken dialog of most (but not all) musicals. Some operas are comedic and some melodramatic and some tragic. Like musicals they are generally staged (although concert versions are done on occasion) and are complete with scenery, costumes, props and everything else one finds in a stage performance.

So filming opera adds yet another dimension to art form as it does in the filming of any other performing art. Unlike spoken pieces, the tempo of the piece is set by the composer. The director can do little about it. Performers cannot pause, delay a line or anything like that unless the music allows for it.

The film was not well received by everyone. Bosley Crowther of the NY Times found it “vastly wearying; splendid and cold” as opposed to The Red Shoes which he found had “warmth and vitality”.

On the other hand George Romero claims that it is his favorite film of all time, and the film that made him want to make movies.

Martin Scorsce ever the fan of the Archers loved it as did Cecil B. DeMille. The French film critic and theorist Andre Bazin said

“The cinema thus creates here a new artistic monster: the best legs adorned by the best voice. Not only is opera liberated from its material constraints but also from its human limitations. Lastly, dance itself is renewed by the photography and the editing, which allows a kind of choreography of the second degree where the rhythm of the dance is served by that of the cinema.”

Many would agree it is a monster. No performer actually performs, but several people are playing one part in many cases – the actor whom we see is not the person singing. This is not new, with Hoffmann and Bazin is wrong here. Dubbed films have been going on for years and all sound (including dialog) in Italian films are add in post production.

The opera was never seen by Offenbach who died before its completion – the result being there are innumerable versions floating around. Some spoken dialog in the original has been turned into recitative and many bits have been added without a clear understanding of Offenbach’s desires. The recent trend has been to find the most accurate version from notes and so on.

The Hoffmann of the story is a real character, E.T.A. Hoffmann a well-known German author of the romantic period, who was a person of wide skills: the author of fantasy and horror, a jurist, composer, music critic, draftsman and caricaturist! He often wrote a combination of the macabre and realism which influenced many other writers such as Nikolai Gogol (1809–1852), Charles Dickens (1812–1870), Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867), George MacDonald (1824–1905), Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821–1881), Franz Kafka (1883–1924) and film maker Alfred Hitchcock (1899–1980). Hoffmann’s story Das Fräulein von Scuderi (Madamoiselle di Scudery) is sometimes cited as the first detective story and a direct influence on Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue".

Hoffmann wrote several stories on which each act of the opera is based. Although he himself does not appear in his stories, he is added as the protagonist in the opera. Three of his stories constitute each of the acts of the opera (Act I = Der Sandmann; Act II =Rat(h) Krespel; Act III =Das verlorne Spiegelbild from Die Abenteuer der Sylvester-Nacht ("The Adventures of New Year's Eve")). His story “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” served as the basis for Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker ballet.

There are many reasons why Powell would have been interested in this opera in addition to his “composed film” along with an interest in Hoffmann. How does the following link with some things we have said about Powell?

His masterpiece novel Lebensansichten des Katers Murr ("The Life and Opinions of Tomcat Murr", 1819–1821) deals with such issues as the aesthetic status of 'true' artistry and the modes of self-transcendence that accompany any genuine endeavour to create. Hoffmann's portrayal of the character Kreisler (a genius musician) is wittily counterpointed with the character of the tomcat Murr – a virtuoso illustration of artistic pretentiousness that many of Hoffmann's contemporaries found offensive and subversive of Romantic ideals.

Have other writers looked at the nature of creativity? Barrie and The White Bird. Watch the film carefully to see what peculiarities of Powell appear

AFTER THE FILM

Linkage of personage.

Offenbach intended that the four soprano roles be played by the same singer, for Olympia, Giulietta and Antonia are three facets of Stella, Hoffmann's unreachable love. Similarly, the four villains (Lindorf, Coppélius, Miracle, and Dapertutto) would be performed by the same bass-baritone, because they are all manifestations of evil. While the doubling of the four villains is quite common, most performances of the work use different singers for the loves of Hoffmann. This is because different skills are needed for each role: Olympia requires a skilled coloratura singer with stratospheric high notes, Antonia is written for a more lyric voice, and Giulietta is usually performed by a dramatic soprano or a mezzo-soprano. When all three roles (four if the role of Stella is counted) are performed by a single soprano in a performance, it is considered one of the largest challenges in the lyric-coloratura repertoire.

Hoffmann is always played by the same performer, Robert Roundsville which is logical since it is one character.

On the other hand, Hoffmann’s four nemeses (and manifestations of evil) are all played by one performer – in this case Helpmann

It is under these circumstances somewhat surprising that Powell did not use one performer for all four of Hoffmann’s loves (a rarely accomplished feat in the opera house since the roles are for rather different voices). Given the use of the same actress in three roles in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, it would almost seem like a foregone conclusion that Powell would have done the same here.

Each of the acts is itself “color coded” Think about different kinds of coding – sartorial, flowers, etc. Are there cultural significances for different variables (animals? What kind of pet does a character have cat? Dog? What kind of dog? Is a guy with a miniature poodle on a leash going to be regarded differently than one with a husky?)

Colors: Do colors have a meaning? Think of words and their associations in English – Colors singly or with other colors.

Colors may have meanings in combinations as well.

Red white and blue – American flag
Red/black/gold (German flag)

Hein Heckroth color coded each of the acts: