Hoffmanns Erzählungen

With what is probably the most famous fragment in opera literature, four directing teams are presenting themselves for the first time at Graz Opera, immersing themselves in aesthetically completely different universes with very different artistic approaches – film animation, puppetry and choreographically moving bodies. In three episodes, dazzling worlds full of fantastic characters and events unfold. Always at the centre of the action as the protagonist and creator of the scenery: the poet himself.

With The Tales of Hoffmann, based on stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann, one of the most influential writers of Black Romanticism, Jacques Offenbach created a parable of artistic creation and failure – and a work that he had to leave unfinished because he died before completing it.

The curtain opens, a candle is lit and the poet Hoffmann begins to tell his story. Together with him and the muse who keeps his inspiration from drying up, the audience is immersed in the poet’s bizarre and fantastical tales – and their realisation by four very different artists: The universe of the mechanical puppet Olympia is unleashed by the British theatre group “1927”, whose works (including for the Komische Oper Berlin, the Salzburg Festival and the Burgtheater Vienna) amaze with their combination of film animation and live acting. Australian-born puppeteer Neville Tranter breathes life into the world of the singer Antonia with life-size, bizarre folding mouth puppets, led by singers and puppeteers together. And Dutch choreographer Nanine Linning, whose work seamlessly blends dance and design, video and visual art in the sense of a Gesamtkunstwerk, devotes herself to the story of the seductive courtesan Giulietta in a Venice vibrating with sensuality. Director Tobias Ribitzki and set designer Stefan Rieckhoff provide the external and internal framework for a fantastic journey that takes the audience through ever-changing visual worlds.