Les Contes d'Hoffmann
Offenbach's only full-scale opera charts the unhappy relationships of the poet
Hoffmann, who falls in turn for a mechanical doll, a courtesan and a consumptive. In all three affairs he is thwarted by a sinister figure who plots his downfall. Petroc
Trelawny introduces this performance given last week at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in which John Schlesinger 's brilliant production is revived with a cast that includes Marcelo Alvarez , Angela Gheorghiu and Michele Pertusi.
Royal Opera Chorus and Orchestra, conductor Emmanuel Villaume
Prologue and Act 1
8.00 Twenty Minutes: Walter Benjamin 's Paris 1: Janet Suzman reads the moving and ultimately tragic story of Walter Benjamin 's escape across the Pyrenees from occupied France to Spain. He carried with him the bulky manuscript bearing his last thoughts on the Paris Arcades Project, his audacious attempt to rethink history.
8.20 Act 2
9.20 Twenty Minutes: Walter Benjamin 's Paris 2: Christopher Cook and Professor Steven Connortake a tour around
Walter Benjamin 's Arcades Project. This incomplete study of the social and architectural fabric of 19th-century Paris is now hailed as one of the most important literary undertakings of the 20th century.
9.40 Act 3 and Epilogue