At the Salzburg Festival, Mariame Clément moves Offenbach’s “Les Contes d’Hoffmann” to a film set, causing confusion, and Marc Minkowski dismantles the music.
Jacques Offenbach’s opera “Les Contes d’Hoffmann” is complicated. The composer died before the premiere, there are a number of versions of the work, and the Salzburg Festival is certainly not the shortest one. Two people who know Offenbach well were hired for this: the conductor Marc Minkowski, who is making his debut with the Vienna Philharmonic, the Festival’s resident orchestra. And the director Mariame Clément, who is directing in Salzburg for the first time. You think it could be exciting, but instead it turns out to be difficult.