Tales of Hoffman

[Paul Mackin]

On Tue, 2004-11-16 at 11:09, Ghetta Life wrote:
> I've just recently been made aware of the Offenbach opera "The Tales of 
> Hoffman."  I haven't seen it yet (I hear the 1951 film version directed by 
> Michael Powell is very good), but the synopsis makes me think Pynchon must 
> have found it a partial inspiration for his novel "V."  The story centers on 
> Hoffman's encounters with a series of enticing females:
> 
> In the first act Hoffman falls in love with a life-sized Parisian mechanical 
> doll named Olympia.  At the end of this act Olypia is dismantled before 
> Hoffman's eyes by the mad scientist Copplius, one of the doll's creators.
> 
> In the second act Hoffman professes his love for Antonia, a woman with a 
> weak heart, forbidden to sing by her father lest her heart fail.  This time 
> the same scientist now in the guise of Dr. Miracle entices the girl to sing 
> and thus she dies.
> 
> In the third act Hoffman is seduced by the decadent Venetian courtesan 
> Giulietta (bribed to do so by the same evil one of the two preceding acts).  
> She steals his reflection (his soul) and departs in the arms of a grotesque 
> dwarf.
> 
> In the final act it ir revealed to the despairing hoffman that all three 
> women are different aspects of one woman, the opera singer Stella.  Stella 
> arrives at the pub where Hoffman is drowning his sorrows, only to depart 
> with his evil rival.


And what's more the dancer who did Stella (also Olympia) was the same 
Moira Shearer who played Victoria (Vicki Page) in the earlier Powell
ballet film "The Red Shoes."