[Met Performance] CID:223020



Les Contes d'Hoffmann
Metropolitan Opera House, Wed, September 16, 1970

Debut : Serge Baudo




Les Contes d'Hoffmann (112)
Jacques Offenbach | Jules Barbier
Hoffmann
Nicolai Gedda

Olympia
Reri Grist

Giulietta
Rosalind Elias

Antonia
Pilar Lorengar

Stella
Skiles Fairlie

Lindorf/Copp?lius/Dappertutto/Dr. Miracle
Gabriel Bacquier

Nicklausse
Frederica von Stade

Andr?s/Cochenille/Pitichinaccio/Frantz
Andrea Velis

Luther
Richard Best

Nathanael
Charles Anthony

Hermann
Gene Boucher

Spalanzani
Paul Franke

Schlemil
Clifford Harvuot

Crespel
Paul Plishka

Mother's Voice
Batyah Godfrey Ben-David


Conductor
Serge Baudo [Debut]


Director
Cyril Ritchard

Designer
Rolf G?rard





Les Contes d'Hoffmann received nine performances this season.

Review 1:

Review of Winthrop Sargeant in the New Yorker

Wednesday night brought that old favorite "Les Contes d'Hoffmann," with a cast that was generally good, if by no means up to the standard of that of "Ernani." Nicolai Gedda, whose voice lacks velvet, though he is an excellent musician and has excellent French enunciation as well as a handsome appearance, was the Hoffmann. Reri Grist made one of the cutest mechanical dolls to be seen in a long time, and sang her lines accurately. I wish that her role had not been plagued by Cyril Ritchard's incorrigible habit, as director, of milking laughs. One spontaneous self-winding-up of Olympia's machinery is funny; the second falls flat. Rosalind Elias was certainly acceptable as Giulietta, and so was Pilar Lorengar as Antonia. Frederica von Stade made a very good Nicklausse, though her femininity betrayed her masculine costume more than once. The quadruple roles of Copp?lius, Dappertutto, Lindorf, and Dr. Miracle were done by Gabriel Bacquier, a splendid actor, and if his baritone voice is not the most beautiful in the world, it is at least a powerful one. Paul Franke and Clifford Harvuot who were, incidentally, the only singers from past productions of "Hoffmann," performed expertly as Spalanzani and Schlemil. Paul Plishka was outstanding as Antonia's father, and Andrea Veils was effective in all four of his minor roles. A new conductor, Serge Baudo, didn't seem to arouse much tension. He proved to be what is usually described as a useful "routinier."



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