CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY presents THE TALES of HOFFMANN

Offenbach’s Fantastical Gothic Romance comes to the COC from Vlaamse Opera, where it premiered in 2000.

April 10, 14, 18, 21, 27, May 3, 6, 8 and 14, 2012

CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY CALENDAR

The Canadian Opera Company’s 2011/2012 spring season opens with one of the great operatic masterpieces of the 19th century, Jacques Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann.  This darkly romantic tale about a tortured artist’s failure to find love makes its long-awaited return to the COC stage.  Johannes Debus conducts the melody-filled score and Lee Blakeley directs a production that takes its cues from Gothic-Romantic author E. T. A. Hoffmann’s own work.  Sung in French with English SURTITLES™, The Tales of Hoffmann runs for nine performances at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.

Making his COC debut as Hoffmann, the barfly poet who spins captivating reminiscences of lost loves to his fellow drinkers, is American tenor Russell Thomas.  Hailed for his “ringing top notes” (Chicago Sun-Times), described as “superb” (New York Times) and noted for performances “sung with passion” (The Times, U.K.), Thomas is one of the most exciting vocal and dramatic talents on the international opera and concert scene today.

Also appearing as Hoffmann for two performances is COC Ensemble Studio graduate tenor David Pomeroy, whose rich voice has been heard with major opera companies and orchestras across Canada and throughout the United States and Europe.  Pomeroy made his 2009 Metropolitan Opera debut in the role of Hoffmann, following his last appearance with the COC in 2009’s Madama Butterfly.

The Tales of Hoffmann is Jacques Offenbach’s final opera and represents the culmination of his efforts to be taken seriously as an operatic composer after a successful career as a composer of numerous operettas.  Its premiere in 1881 in Paris was considered a triumph, but the opera fell out of  favour until a production in 1905 in Berlin.

Since then, The Tales of Hoffmann has been heralded as Offenbach’s operatic masterpiece.