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Hoffman in the park

Your conductor for the evening, Yang Chih-chin. PHOTO: COURTESY OF TSO

Tonight sees the third act of Offenbach’s opera Les Contes d’Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann) performed in the arena in Da-an Forest Park. It lasts an hour and entrance is free.

The three-act opera consists of three stories of hopeless or betrayed love from the life of Romantic-era German writer E.T.A. Hoffmann, and each act is self-contained, so to stage only one of them is perfectly reasonable. Tonight’s section concerns Hoffmann’s infatuation with a Venetian courtesan, Giulietta, and contains the famous “barcarolle,” which was probably one of the reasons it was chosen.

The story tells of how Giulietta pretends to love Hoffmann but is in reality working for the evil genius Dappertutto, who wants her to steal Hoffmann’s reflection in a mirror so as to control him. Dappertutto also plans to poison Hoffmann’s friend Nicklausse, who is trying to help him. Giulietta, however, drinks the poison by mistake.

The “barcarolle” is a rocking tune meant to derive from gondoliers’ songs on choppy water in the Venice of old. You may think you don’t know it, but you’re sure to recognize it when you hear it.

This Taipei Symphony Orchestra (TSO) production continues the group’s admirable tradition of free outdoor shows. It’s staged Rigoletto in this same location, as well as Cavalleria Rusticana and Madama Butterfly in the square outside Zhongshan Hall (and the latter also in a mountain-girt setting in Nantou County).

Tonight’s conductor will be Yang Chih-chin (楊智欽), and the opera will be sung in French. It begins at 8pm.


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