The Tales of Hoffmann 4K 1951 Ultra HD 2160p

This a film version of the opera "The Tales of Hoffmann", however it is NOT just a film of a staged performance. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (and the rest of "The Archers") work their usual magic here. The opera dramatises the three great romances in the life of the poet-hero presented in a series of flashbacks. Hoffmann's tales depict the struggle between human love and the artist's dedication to his work. Hoffmann loses each of the women he loves but gains instead poetic inspiration -- the ability to transform painful experiences into art.

User Review
Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger filmed the opera "Tales of Hoffmann" in 1951, to stunning effect. Offenbach's opera is the story of three loves of the poet Hoffmann (Robert Rounsville) and epitomizes the struggle between art and love, as he is transformed as a poet by each failed romance.

The story begins in Nuremberg as Hoffmann watches the object of his affections, Stella (Moira Shearer) dance a ballet. During the intermission, he goes into a tavern and tells the customers about his three major affairs.

Opera singers, with two exceptions, dub the stars, who are mostly from the ballet world; several will be familiar from The Red Shoes: Moira Shearer, Ludmilla Tcherina, Robert Helpmann, Léonide Massine, and Frederick Ashton. Only Hoffmann, Robert Rounsville, and Antonia, Anne Ayars, do their own singing. The rest of the vocals are provided by Dorothy Bond, Margherita Grandi, Monica Sinclair, Joan Alexander, Grahame Clifford, Bruce Dargavel, Murray Dickie, Owen Brannigan, Fisher Morgan, and Rene Soames.

Both the singing and dancing are absolutely magnificent, the beautiful Shearer dancing much better than she did in The Red Shoes several years earlier, and Powell and Pressburger fill the opera with fantastic effects and colors. My favorite is Shearer's doll ballet sequence, with the glorious coloratura singing of the Doll Aria by Dorothy Bond, a discovery of Sir Thomas Beecham, who conducts the orchestra. Tragically she was killed in a car accident the next year; she deserved to be one of the most famous sopranos who ever lived.

There are a couple of problems with this incredible piece. It's done in English, which due to the tamber of the high soprano voice, can make it difficult to understand. So people who know the opera would probably enjoy it the most. Secondly, it's not paced very well - there are some very draggy sections; some of the chorus work could have been cut.

The overall effect for the eyes and ears is fabulous, but "The Tales of Hoffmann" leaves one depressed for how far we've fallen culturally in this world. Imagine mounting this film today. How many people would attend? Five?