Jacque Offenbach’s “The Tales of Hoffmann” is a something of a puzzle — a big, multi-dimensional puzzle.
First, there’s the opera: Offenbach died in 1880 before he completed it, and musicians have been amending and debating it ever since.
Second, there’s the challenge of staging an opera that takes place in four cities: Nuremburg, Munich, Paris and Venice.
UNC School of the Arts’ Fletcher Opera Institute will attempt to assemble all the puzzle pieces into a cohesive whole when it opens “The Tales of Hoffmann” Friday at the Stevens Center.
James Allbritten, the music director, and Steve LaCosse, the stage director, seem to relish the challenges that “Hoffmann” presents. They’ve been working since August with singers, musicians and designers to flesh out Offenbach’s tuneful and romantic battle between good and evil, art and domesticity.
“Offenbach was
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