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Dicapo in the News OPERA NEWS REVIEW Jacques Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann has been the subject of numerous tweaks and rewrites, one of the most recent being offered by Dicapo Opera Theatre. Conductor Mark Flint and stage director/company General Director Michael Capasso collaborated on the adaptation, which trimmed the work to its musical and dramatic essentials. The result was a taut package for fifteen performers and an orchestra of twenty-four. Performed in French and set entirely in the tavern, this Hoffmann focused on the Faustian aspects of the story. The disillusioned poet imagines his past life and loves as he drinks himself to death, tormented by his nemeses, the devil incarnate. Without the distraction of fluff and spectacle, the character of Hoffmann, presumably a disappointed idealist, emerges as a charmless crybaby, consistently duped in his search for love. Finally, after alienating everyone, including his best friend, Nicklausse, Hoffmann welcomes death in the form of his Muse. Here was a tale of self deception and abuse, leaving the viewer to wonder whatever happened to free will. 
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 The cast (seen Oct. 4) performed with discipline and commitment. Drew Alan Slatton had no problem with the vocal demands of the title role, and Marc Embree was appropriately ominous as the villians. Sarah Bleasdale gave an eccentric tilt to Nicklausse, suggestive of Jiminy Cricket, and Melody Morrison's beautifully sung Antonia was heartwrenching. The production was greatly enhanced by Flint's exacting musical preparation and expert leadership. Capasso's unsentimental staging focused attention on Hoffmann's tormented spin toward death. Set design by John Farrell, costumes by Diane Martindale and lighting by Susan Roth created the right late nineteenth-century atmosphere. An excellent device was the presentation of Olympia (Leanne McGiffin) as an early film goddess, seen as a hologram rather than a mechanical doll. Opera News, February 8, 1997 Copyright Opera News RETURN TO DICAPO IN THE NEWS
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