Word: opera
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...lest this critic sound completely dismissive of the holiday honoring a third-century martyr with a penchant for matchmaking, something actually did go sublimely right this Valentine's: the rousing production of "The Tales of Hoffmann" by the Dunster House Opera...
Some fine thespians and a refreshingly superb orchestra, coupled with the often ribald and vaudvillean tone of Jacques Offenbach's opera, provided a high caliber and rollicking fun performance. Music Director Brent Ranalli and Stage Director Adriana Abdenur, are to be commended for a first-rate production, which would make past Dunster Opera legends, such as Jefferson Packer, Brian Saccente, and Kate DeLima oh-so-proud...
This is a complicated work by an enigmatic composer who died while composing both this score, and on a more macabre note, his own Requiem. For this reason, the opera has been subject to numerous musical adjustments, scene juxtapositions, and idiosyncratic interpretations since it was first performed in 1880. The Dunster House Opera made some wise choices, sticking with the most traditional of these versions, using English spoken dialogue in place of French recitative, and abbreviating the length of the opera...
Recalling his German roots, Offenbach combines Oktoberfest-inspired scenes of tavern life and male-bonding-over-beer with the equally Teutonic theme of sensitive young men pining over that special Fraulein. (Think Goethe.) In this opera, the eponymous character Hoffmann (Jerry Shuman) dreams of not just one Fraulein, but a trinity of them who together form that elusive ideal--the perfect woman...
...protected by his Muse, in the form of his sidekick Nicklausse (Caprice Corona). As he stumbles into the beer hall, he is cajoled into singing about the disfigured "Kleinzach" and then into recounting the stories of these past three loves, now embodied in his present love interest, the opera diva Stella (played alternately by Hilary Snow and K.T. Lawson), who will later be stolen by his enemy Lindorf (Joshua Benaim...