Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann: Fool for Love
b'Love is intoxicating, but dating can be hard. In Jacques Offenbach\\u2019s The Tales of Hoffmann, a love-obsessed poet tells fantastical stories of romance gone very, very wrong. Based on the works of 19th-century Gothic horror writer E.T.A. Hoffmann, the opera is a journey through desire and loss \\u2013 a journey that just might make you feel better about your own dating disasters!\\xa0\\nIn the aria \\u201c\\xd4 Dieu! de quelle ivresse,\\u201d the poet-protagonist Hoffmann professes his passionate love to the courtesan Giulietta. In this episode, Rhiannon Giddens and her guests explore the intoxicating power of romance, and the magically mysterious world created by both E.T.A. Hoffmann and Offenbach. Tenor Matthew Polenzani sings the aria onstage at the Metropolitan Opera.\\xa0\\nThe Guests\\nTenor Matthew Polenzani has just wrapped up his 22nd season at the Metropolitan Opera, which is one of many places he\\u2019s performed the role of Hoffmann. As a happily married man, he can\\u2019t quite relate to the poet\\u2019s unending heartbreak, but he does believe that all artists should have a touch of crazy in them.\\nVeronica Chambers is a writer and editor for The New York Times. In 2006, her essay \\u201cLoved and Lost? It\\u2019s O.K., Especially if You Win\\u201d was published in the Modern Love column, detailing her long list of doomed romances. But, like Hoffmann, she kept her heart wide open to the possibility of love.\\nStage director Beth Greenberg directed The Tales of Hoffmann for New York City Opera back in 1996. She counts Jacques Offenbach among the greatest composers, in part because of his extraordinary sense of satire. She likes to think of him as \\u201cthe Mel Brooks of the Champs-\\xc9lys\\xe9es.\\u201d\\nFrancesca Brittan is an Associate Professor of Music at Case Western Reserve University. Her work focuses on 19th- and 20th-century music, and her 2017 book Music and Fantasy in the Age of Berlioz details her fascination with the fantasy genre in literature and in music. She loves exploring the secret worlds imagined by E.T.A. Hoffmann and writers like him.'