Rating: 
Summary: Frank Behrens has is right! Terrific Hoffman!
Review: Agree with Frank's review and feel this is certainly the best video available. Would probably be nice if the Lyon version which is so soundly trounced was available on CD with such a great cast. I saw live the Met's production with Ramey (all 4 badguys), Domingo (Hoffman) and Vaness (all 4 female leads) which was truly wonderful matching this version if not exceeding it, but, it's not available on video, as usual. I recommend this as excellent until a better one is filmed and released.
Rating:
Summary: Frank Behrens has is right! Terrific Hoffman!
Review: Agree with Frank's review and feel this is certainly the best video available. Would probably be nice if the Lyon version which is so soundly trounced was available on CD with such a great cast. I saw live the Met's production with Ramey (all 4 badguys), Domingo (Hoffman) and Vaness (all 4 female leads) which was truly wonderful matching this version if not exceeding it, but, it's not available on video, as usual. I recommend this as excellent until a better one is filmed and released.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful except the production
Review: I prefer my operas grand and colorful. This production was grand but in monochromatic colors. OK but I have seen so many better interpretations of this opera in color.The music is wonderful. I loved all the principals. I am glad I bought this version. I have the one from Lyons France and it is awfull. I do not know of any other DVD of the Tales of Hoffmann.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful except the production
Review: I prefer my operas grand and colorful. This production was grand but in monochromatic colors. OK but I have seen so many better interpretations of this opera in color. The music is wonderful. I loved all the principals. I am glad I bought this version. I have the one from Lyons France and it is awfull. I do not know of any other DVD of the Tales of Hoffmann.
Rating:
Summary: THE BEST; A Great Production
Review: I've owned the LaserDisc of this 1981 performance for many years. I've tranferred it to DVD so I could view it conveniently in a DVD changer because I'd lost hope it would ever appear commercially on DVD. The production is brilliant with great "Victorian" touches (in terms of the time period they seem to come from) in Act II; the mechanical "contraptions" are wonderful. The production is fantastic, as it should be, yet seems rooted in the late 1800's. It is also a rich, sensual Royal Opera production. Young Domingo and Baltsa are at their best. Regarding the other DVDs of the opera: Much as one can vaguely admire the Opera de Lyon "Some Tales from Hoffman", striving to be different (and very stark) destroys the opera for me. The 1978 Paris Opera production is OK if rather provincial looking (very simple sets). The 1970 Komische Oper Berlin production is actually quite good and lively, but it's sung in German. Even if the musical performances in the Royal Opera production were only OK it would be the winner, but the performances are excellent. Anyone who thinks they have even a little interest in French opera should buy this.
Rating: 
Summary: Not DVD Quality
Review: The content was good but the Video quality was very poor. I was watching on my Sanyo HD PLV-60 projector. It looks like the master tape was a VHS or 3/4" tape. The original show was taped in 1981 by the British. Those people are perfectionists. The only explanation for the poor quality must be 2nd and 3rd generation of tape or a bad transfer from PAL to NTSC TV. You should not watch this DVD on a big screen.
Rating:
Summary: Not DVD Quality
Review: The content was good but the Video quality was very poor. I was watching on my Sanyo HD PLV-60 projector. It looks like the master tape was a VHS or 3/4" tape. The original show was taped in 1981 by the British. Those people are perfectionists. The only explanation for the poor quality must be 2nd and 3rd generation of tape or a bad transfer from PAL to NTSC TV. You should not watch this DVD on a big screen.
Rating:
Summary: Not DVD Quality
Review: The content was good but the Video quality was very poor. I was watching on my Sanyo HD PLV-60 projector. It looks like the master tape was a VHS or 3/4" tape. The original show was taped in 1981 by the British. Those people are perfectionists. The only explanation for the poor quality must be 2nd and 3rd generation of tape or a bad transfer from PAL to NTSC TV. You should not watch this DVD on a big screen.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful production--and the only one so far on video
Review: There are many "editions" of this opera (Offenbach died before completing the score)and this tape offers the standard one. That is it does not use the spoken dialogue or any of the "lost" material now being included in many recordings. More damagingly to the shape of the plot, it does not show the Muse at all at the start of the Prologue, no less her transformation into Nicklausse. For better or worse, it does use four bass baritones as the four villains and four women as the four loves (even Sills could not manage all four when she tried). As one critic points out, the only Frenchman is in the pit conducting; and the French pronunciation of the cast is variable. Although the supernatural elements are not ignored in this staging, they are far less emphasized than in other productions, especially the film version with the English-language soundtrack. Domingo is in good voice and manages to create a believable title character. Claire Powell is an attractive Nicklausse with a gorgeous mezzo. Either by choice or direction, she is a concerned and often angry companion to her poetical friend. Baltsa does one sharp reaction turn too many as the Venetian siren; while Cortrubas looks properly at death's door. The men, given the more flamboyant roles make more of a dramatic impression. And the coloratura of Serra's doll is right on the mark. So all in all, this is a terrific bargain and certainly far superior to the older edition that was on two tapes and had no subtitles! By the way, the subtitles here are not too well managed. Many lines are not translated at all and many are shown well after the words have been sung. Still this is a quibble, given the value of the production as a whole. Well worth the 5 stars. And be careful about a video title "Des Contes d'Hoffmann." It is a desconstruction of the opera and might not please one who thinks he is buying the genuine article!
Rating:
Summary: I Loved It!
Review: This is a great, great performance. Domingo's Covent Garden Hoffmann is supreme, but this is no one-star show: there is a first-rate supporting cast as well (including the veteran bass-baritone Sir Geraint Evans as Coppelius -- I believe these were his last Covent Garden performances -- the always-outstanding Robert Lloyd as Lindorf, and the touching Ileana Cotrubas as Antonia). Every fan of HOFFMANN and/or Domingo should watch this video!
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