J. Offenbach’s opera “The Tales of Hoffmann”: on the question of interpretation. Part 1

Abstract

The opera by Jacques Offenbach “The Tales of Hoffmann” is a unique phenomenon in the history of the opera genre attracting the attention of interpreters and researchers. Dealing with the text, musicians face particular problems caused by an unusual story behind the opera and its other peculiarities. The purpose of this article is to study the specificity of the opera at the literary, music, and stage levels using  the hermeneutical approach. The three independent original works of Hoffmann were combined in a grand drama composed by J. Barbier and M. Carré, and then in a libretto (J. Barbier) by means of deconstruction of romantic stereotypes of the main character, which reveals the peculiarities of the opera under consideration and explains the topicality of this research. The music analysis is aimed at the detection of expressive means through which the composer had managed to explain the idea of the authors of the literary text and get it across to the audience. The key formative way of building a music drama is a “romantic irony” (M. Ya. Kuklinskaya). That’s where the genre dualism of the opera under consideration comes from, which manifested itself in the form of the synthesis of the genres opera comique and opera lyrique. The authors also detect the interaction of elements of both genres helping to create an unusual atmosphere of the opera, and the play with the audience, allowing manipulating the spectators’ expectations, which is more typical of operetta than of opera genre.