Opera Bites: Love gone awry theme in "Tales of Hoffmann"

On Saturday, the high-definition broadcast from the Metropolitan Opera will be Jacques Offenbach's "Tales of Hoffmann." The performance begins at noon at the Town Plaza Cinema in Cape Girardeau.

Offenbach died before he could finish his opera, so, to this day, no one really knows what the final version would have been. "Tales of Hoffman" is one of the Met's new productions this season, and the director says it will be a "magical journey in which the title character works out different manifestations of his psyche."

The Prologue takes place in a tavern. Hoffmann is there, and he sings about his memories of a beautiful woman. He and the evil Lindorf are in love with the opera singer Stella. Hoffmann's muse appears and he begins the stories of his three past loves.

In Act I he describes his first love, Olympia. She is a mechanical doll created by the inventor Spalanzani. Hoffmann thinks she is a real woman. Things go much awry. Hoffmann breaks his magic glasses that allowed him to see her as a human, and Olympia is torn apart. The guests mock Hoffmann for falling in love with a machine.

In Act II he tells of his second love, Antonia. She has been having an affair with Hoffmann. Antonia is a singer, but she has a weak heart and her father wants her to stop singing. The evil Dr. Miracle claims he can cure her and urges her to sing. She collapses and Miracle pronounces her dead.

For Act III, Hoffmann reveals his third love, the Venetian courtesan Giu-lietta. Hoffmann loves her, but he is robbed of his reflection by the sinister Dapertutto. Hoffmann kills Giuletta's current lover, but when he goes to look for her, she has already left with a new lover.

In the Epilogue, Hoffmann is drunk, trying to forget all of his disastrous love affairs. His muse encourages him to find consolation in his creative genius.

Tenor Joseph Calleja sings the role of Hoffmann. Soprano Anna Netrebko is Antonia and baritone Alan Held plays the part of all four villains.

Barb Herbert of Cape Girardeau is an opera lover and host of KRCU's "Sunday Night at the Opera."