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The composer never lived to see the premiere of his one and only opera – he died several months before the first performance which was a staggering success. He had managed to orchestrate Act I himself; the remainder was left to Ernest Guiraud, who had done something similar with Carmen, composing its recitatives following Bizet’s death.
Vasily Barkhatov’s production proved to be the latest “jewel in the crown” of the young stage director’s career and was awarded a Golden Mask prize in 2013 (Best Male Role, singer Ildar Abdrazakov). Barkhatov’s production, like the opera itself, is based on a story about three writers in love who might not actually exist. In the words of one critic, “in his production, Hoffmann’s phantasmagoria grips the auditorium, attracting audiences with his subtle ideas, spinning us in an eddy of allusions and theatre trickery. Neither does he forget the most important thing – to restore to Hoffmann his status as a true creator and not some run-of-the-mill opera tenor! The European touch to the production comes with Ildar Abdrazakov in several roles as the Devil’s messengers. And that is a true Hoffmanniade.”
At the Mariinsky Theatre, mezzo-soprano Irina Shishkova has already performed several travesty roles including Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), Garcias (Don Quichotte) and Siébel (Faust). In Les Contes d’Hoffmann the singer will be performing the role of Hoffmann’s alter-ego the young poet Nicklausse for the first time.
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