Les contes d’Hoffmann at La Scala with the shadows and magic of Livermore. Chaslin on the podium

Les contes d’Hoffmann, Jacques Offenbach’s unfinished masterpiece, returns to La Scala for 6 performances from 15 to 31 March after an 11-year absence. Directs the Master Frederic Chaslina profound connoisseur of this score who has conducted more than 500 times in all existing versions, who proposes a new alternative version to the 2009 critical edition

The magical and eerie atmosphere of the work is rendered by the director David Livermore and his collaborators (the sets are by Gio Formathe costumes of Gianluca Falaschithe lights of Anthony Castro) with a game of masks and shadows that makes use of the experience of the group Backlight Theater of shadowsfor the first time at La Scala.

The reference to the fascination of the magic lanterns that inhabit the French nineteenth-century imagination but above all the dreamlike world of the early 20th century avant-gardes is placed at the service of a ruthless and current representation of gender stereotypes. Hoffmann is unable to see humanity in the women he meets and who remain for him caricatures of traditional roles: respectively doll, victim, prostitute or muse. His journey through obsessions and tragedies will be one of death and rebirth.

The work on the actors-singers is fundamental, a team that unites some of the most prestigious artists on the international scene with emerging young voices who find in this production the possibility of establishing themselves in important roles.

Hoffmann is Vittorio Grigolowho combines a perfect French diction with vocal polish and scenic charisma.

Hoffmann (Vittorio Grigolo) is accompanied by the skeptic Nicklausse played en travesti by Marina Viotti (in the photo) in the unfortunate encounters with Olympia, who has the young voice and soaring coloratura of Federica Guide, Antonia that is Eleanor Burattoby now established among the greatest interpreters of our years, and Giulietta who has the charm of not yet thirty Frances DiSauro.

In the photo in the center Federica Guida is Olympia.

In the photo Eleonora as Antonia.

In the photo Francesca Di Sauro (Juliet) with Antonio Grigolo (Hoffmann).

In the four diabolical characters he returns to La Scala Luca Pisaroni. In the part of Stella she sings Greta Dutyone of the most promising artists of the Scala Academy.

Alfonso Antoniozzi lends his vis comica and personality to Luther and Crespel.

They complete the cast Yann Beuron like Spalanzani, Hugo Laporte like Hermann and Schlémil, Francois Piolino such as Andrés, Cochenille, Frantz and Pitichinaccio e Néstor Galvan like Nathanaël.

“This Hoffmann – explained director Davide Livermore at the press conference – teaches us to reckon by putting ourselves in the shoes of the person who becomes the loved object”.

“Telling about Hoffman is a need of the soul – Livermore continued – which leads us all to desire a dream world where everything is illusion. Hoffmann talks to us about the illusion of love. He teaches us to deal with relationships. It is as if asking us if we are sure we can love a person for who they are without typifying them”

“On stage you will see a dreamlike world where the quality of acting done by an excellent cast is paramount. A singer’s ability to act is a sine qua non. Hoffmann teaches us that life cannot be typified in anything. That life it’s so much more, it’s a laugh and a very bitter tear at the same time” added Livermore.

“When we face a restoration job of this type I have tried to remove like a surgeon the added things that don’t have the taste of Hoffmann” explained director Chaslin.

Director Chaslin wanted to overcome the critical edition of Michael Kaye and Jean Christophe Keck of 2009, in which he recognizes “errors in the French language, as well as in harmony and orchestration” and has decided to abandon “the fashion of the moment, of the novelty and sensationalism” to return “to the purest and closest source to Offenbach’s original”, maintaining a show of three hours and 45 minutes.

Given the duration, the Teatro alla Scala has decided to bring forward the start of the show to 7.30pm.

The costumes are signed by Gianluca Falaschi. “I dressed the characters as the reflection of a person immersed in their own thoughts. Projection of both desires and themselves. A game that takes up playing with shadows” he explained.

The new production was modified to meet the cuts that La Scala had to face. “Budgets never win but ideas win. It will never be a budget problem to do theatre. The problem is having ideas” Livermore underlined

Giant shadows projected onto the scene by a nineteenth-century magic lantern, a mechanical doll that unexpectedly frees the woman in her, the audience of the theater that has the sensation of watching the Venetian scene from below the water level with the notes of the most famous ” Barcarolle”. It is the version conceived by the director Davide Livermore.

The show runs until March 31st. Live on La Scala TV on 24 March at 7.15pm.