MET Opera's LES CONTES D'HOFFMAN Live In HD At Town Hall Theater 12/19-20

French composer Jacques Offenbach was known for silly, sexy and very popular operettas, best exemplified by the famous "Can-Can" from Orpheus in the Underworld.

Nearing the end of his life, hoping to change his reputation, he sat down to write a serious opera. The result, Les Contes d'Hoffman (Tales of Hoffman), became a huge hit - but the composer never lived to see it, dying four months before the premiere.

Offenbach's masterpiece will be broadcast as part of the Met Opera's "Live in HD" series at Middlebury's Town Hall Theater, on December 19-20.

Some glittering big names make this a very special production. Soprano Anna Nebtrebko stars, and Met conductor/superstar James Levine will be in the pit. Most exciting for many fans is the fact that this will be the second Met production directed by Bartlett Sher.

Sher comes from Broadway. His recent hits include A Light in the Piazza and the still-running South Pacific. He is perhaps the best example of the Met's new policy of bringing in strong directors from outside the world of opera. It paid off handsomely last year, with Sher's critically-acclaimed production of The Barber of Seville.

Les Contes d'Hoffman takes the real life German poet, E.T.A. Hoffmann, and makes him a character in some of his own, fanciful stories. Offenbach's drama follows the title character through three fanciful stories of failed love. The result is one of the grandest and most expressive of all 19th-century French operas - achieving a combination of emotional depth and musical brilliance that only the finest opera composers ever equaled.

The Met Opera "Live in HD" broadcast will be at Town Hall Theater on Saturday, December 19, at 1 pm. An Encore will be shown on Sunday, December 20, at 3 pm. Tickets are $22, with a special $10 student ticket for the Sunday Encore.

Tickets may be purchased at www.townhalltheater.org, by calling 802 392-9222, in person at the THT Box Office, or at the door.

PHOTO: Anna Netrebko

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