The Tales of Hoffmann (Les contes d’Hoffmann)

Hopelessly besotted with a flighty prima donna, the poet Hoffmann drunkenly recalls the three loves of his life: Olympia, a mechanical doll; Antonia, a sick young singer; and Giulietta, a Venetian whore who stole his reflection and his soul. Based upon the fantastical tales of the German Romantic writer E.T.A. Hoffmann, Offenbach’s operatic swansong boasts such hit numbers as the clockwork-driven ‘Doll’s Song’ and the seductively swooning ‘Barcarolle’.