OPERA
" Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann." At the Strand Theatre.
A MORE accurate title for this entertainment, which is described as " a fantastical opera-ballet," would be George Kirsta's Tales of Hoffmann after Offenbach. For the modern producer, after the manner of modern producers, has taken Offenbach's material and refashioned it according to his own ideas.
Poor Offenbach comes very badly out of the affair. Not only is he personally made the villain of the piece, but the whole structure and style of his one serious composition is pulled out of shape and disfigured by the addition of music from La Belle Helene. Now, whatever rank we may accord to Tales of Hoffmann, it must be allowed that it is dramatically an excep- tionally well-constructed work, and that its music is consistent and generally charming in character. The composer took great pains about this essay in a vein more serious than that of his ninety opera bouffes, and he knew perfectly well that the style which suited burlesque w is a different one from that required for opera comique—a difference which seems to have escaped Mr. Kirsta.
Of the musical side of the performance there is little to be said. Mr. Susskind conducts it well Li that his tempi sound right and he gets the orchestra to play rhythmically. If only he could get the singers to sing! I happened on a performance at which the " alternate " cast appeared, and it has never been my misfortune to hear worse singing at a professional operatic performance. No amount of ballet, no tricks of production or clever ideas about scenery can make up for the lack of good singing in an opera of this kind, and one cannot help regretting that the energy and expense that have gone towards spoiling a good work had not been directed to engaging half a dozen good singers and
getting them to play it " straight." DYNELEY HUSSEY.
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