Les Contes D’Hoffmann Transmission Transcript
READ & INTERVIEW: Bliss Show Intro & Peter Gelb interview
BEN BLISS: Hello, I’m Ben Bliss. Welcome to the new season of the Met Live in HD, our portal to the world where audiences on both sides of the equator and across multiple time zones experience opera at its best.
Today we begin with a beloved classic, Les Contes D’Hoffmann, Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann, the story of a poet’s frustrated love life. The role of Hoffmann is a tour de force for a tenor and we’re fortunate today to have one of the world’s best, Benjamin Bernheim, who brings his suave French style to the musical and dramatic demands of this multi-acted opera.
Joining me now to talk about today’s presentation as well as what we can expect from the full Live in HD lineup is Met General Manager Peter Gelb. Hi, Peter.
PETER GELB: Hey, Ben.
BEN BLISS: Nice to see you.
PETER GELB: Great to see you.
BEN BLISS: Thanks for being here.
PETER GELB: Thank you so much for doing this, and it’s great to have one of the world’s great tenors being our host today.
BEN BLISS: Oh, you’re too kind.
PETER GELB: And, you know, I want to also just say to our audiences around the world – you know, you mentioned the fact that, uh, we have audiences on both sides of the equator. In fact, we have an audience in Tromsø, uh, Norway, which is inside the Arctic Circle, watching today. And we also have audiences in Mexico City, or on the Champs Elysees, in Berlin, and in the southern reaches of Uruguay and Argentina. So, this – we welcome all of you to another season at the Met.
BEN BLISS: It’s amazing. It’s almost like you’re trying to make me nervous. (Laughs) Anyway, thanks for being here, Peter. So, what made you decide to open the Live in HD Season with Les Contes D’Hoffmann?
PETER GELB: Well, partly because of the great cast. Uh, and also, you know, I believe the mission of opera is to move the art form forward with great new performances of the classics, uh, with fantastic casts like in Tales of Hoffmann. But also with new – with new operas as well, which is the case of Grounded, the opera that you are starring in alongside Emily D’Angelo, which we’ll be hearing about further – more later in – later in the, uh, program today.
But, uh, you know, it’s between new operas that, uh, shape the future of this art form and the classic operas that we have, uh, I think, sustain – a sustainable future for the art form.
BEN BLISS: Definitely. So, uh, what else are you looking forward to in this season’s HD lineup?
PETER GELB: Well, you know, this is a season that has some of our most popular operas in it. We have a brand new production of Aida starring the fabulous Angel Blue, which, uh, will be in January. I think the next one up is Tosca in November with Lisa Davidson, who’s, you know, a soprano for the ages who is singing that role for the first time on the stage of the Met opposite Freddie De Tommaso, another one of your fellow – colleague tenors –
BEN BLISS: Absolutely.
PETER GELB: — who is making his Met debut.
BEN BLISS: How exciting.
PETER GELB: So, and we have operas, uh – you know, we have new production of Salome, we have, uh, so many – so many fantastic operas at the season – in the season this year.
BEN BLISS: Well, we’re really looking forward to it. Thanks so much for being here with me. And, um, in Les Contes D’ Hoffmann, the poet Hoffmann faces one disastrous love affair after another. Hoffmann’s first love is the robotic creation Olympia, sung by the sublimely stratospheric soprano Erin Morley. Next, is the ill-fated aspiring singer Antonia played by soprano Pretty Yende. Hoffmann’s third failed love is the Venetian courtesan Giulietta portrayed by mezzo soprano Clémentine Margaine.
Throughout his amorous adventures, Hoffmann is accompanied by Nicklausse, a trouser role sung by debuting mezzo soprano Vasilisa Berzhanskaya. And at every turn, Hoffmann also encounters a villain played by bass-baritone Christian Van Horn. Maestro Marco Armiliato, celebrating his 500th Met performance today, is ready to go to the pit and lead us into Hoffmann’s fantastical world. Here is Le Contes D’Hoffmann.
INTERVIEW: Bliss w/ Benjamin Bernheim
BEN BLISS: Benjamin, hello and bravo. It’s nice to see you. (Laughs)
BENJAMIN BERNHEIM: Hi, Ben. Thank you very much.
BEN BLISS: It’s great to meet you. The other BB, the other Ben B.
BENJAMIN BERNHEIM: Exactly, two BB.
BEN BLISS: Look at us taking over the Met stage. (Laughs) Listen, bravo for the Prologue and Act One. It was phenomenal.
BENJAMIN BERNHEIM: Thanks.
BEN BLISS: So, tell us as a proud French tenor, how does it feel to be singing one of the opera’s great French roles on one of opera’s great stages?
BENJAMIN BERNHEIM: I mean, this is really for me the greatest opera in the world. The biggest and the best crowds. I mean, listen to this audience. It was already an amazing performance. I can’t wait for the rest of the performance. But for me, it is such an honor to bring my – my French, my, my view, my, my way of singing French on this – on this stage and to share that with the audience and all my colleagues.
BEN BLISS: Well, we’re thrilled to be here for it. And speaking of that French style, how would you describe the quintessential French style?
BENJAMIN BERNHEIM: We all sing it differently. It’s a matter of taste, it’s a matter of how we want it to sound and you just – you just imagine it. You force it in your mind and you just produce it. And you try to make it the best – the best possible, of course, but the most – the most clear for the audience, even if people don’t speak French. I think it’s always nice to hear a text that is very clear.
BEN BLISS: Certainly. I can tell you when I’ve sung French, if there are two people giving French notes in the room, you get two different –
BENJAMIN BERNHEIM: Exactly. That’s the same feeling. Whether it’s in Italian, in Russian, in French, it’s always a great feeling to have these complements.
BEN BLISS: It’s always a little bit different. So, Hoffmann is not your typical lyric tenor role, to say the least. What do you think sets this role apart and what is your take on the role that makes it unique for you?
BENJAMIN BERNHEIM: Well, Hoffmann is a bit of an antihero. He’s not Romeo, he’s not Des Grieux in Manon, he’s not, uh, many of the roles that I sing that are real pure romantic heroes. Um, Hoffmann is a bit – first, vocally, it’s a bit like La Traviata for a soprano. There are three different roles.
BEN BLISS: Right.
BENJAMIN BERNHEIM: Three different Hoffmanns, three different ways of singing. And also the challenge of having this whole opera, this whole piece on my shoulders for a whole night is just an amazing way to feel, you know, pressure but also just to see how far I can go and to – to share colors, to try new colors every night. For me, Hoffmann is really the most amazing role that I got to sing on stage because I can show so much, so many colors.
BEN BLISS: It really comes through. We’ve seen them all. And you recently had your biggest audience ever when millions of people all over the world –
BENJAMIN BERNHEIM: That is true.
BEN BLISS: — saw you perform in the closing ceremonies of the Olympics in Paris this past July. What was that like?
BENJAMIN BERNHEIM: Oh, that was – I mean, like nothing I guess I will never see and experience in my – in my career but who knows? I have to say it was very special to me to sing a few kilometers from where I was born, sing for my country, sing for my city and for what I think are the most beautiful Olympic games of the history. So, for me, it was – I realized two minutes after getting out of stage, being on the pitch with all these athletes, wow, it happened. It was really magical.
BEN BLISS: Right. Did you meet Celine Dion?
BENJAMIN BERNHEIM: I didn’t have the chance but I met Tom Cruise.
BEN BLISS: Oh, that’s pretty good.
BENJAMIN BERNHEIM: That’s not bad, huh? (Laughs)
BEN BLISS: Well, Benjamin, it’s been a great prologue and a first act so far. Thank you so much, we’re really looking forward to it.
BENJAMIN BERNHEIM: Thank you very much, Ben. Thank you.
BEN BLISS: Cheers. (Laughs)
READ: Throw to roll-in
BEN BLISS: All right, opera fans, you know the costar – or Benjamin’s costar Erin Morley is not just a spectacular singer who can toss off high notes and dazzling coloratura like it’s nothing, she’s also an excellent pianist. She recently sat down at the keyboard to talk us through Olympia’s fiendishly difficult aria, which she just sang to perfection.
ROLL-IN B: Erin Morley at piano
ERIN MORLEY: So here we have, in the Tales of Hoffmann, Olympia singing a waltz, and it is, quite obviously, a spoof of the coloratura showcase moment. It’s meant to be flashy, and it’s written with such delicious wit.
Olympia is, of course, a mechanical doll, and her inventors are hoping to fool Hoffmann into thinking that she is a real woman. And so, she’s programmed to be as lifelike as possible, but she’s a robot. The music is written to sound like a robot is singing – very measured, very precise. Um, it starts with a harp and a flute solo, very delicate, all staccato, and very robot-like. And that trill is kind of like something mechanical that’s been stalled, and then she sings.
(Singing) And then we move into this section that becomes very chromatic, but the line keeps rising by half steps. (Singing) I mean, it’s very… (plays circus theme) – um, and this “oom-pah-pah” takes us to the circus world right away.
And then she starts doing more impressive things. She starts singing arpeggios, and she starts singing trills and melismas and higher notes, and we get the sense that she’s getting too excited and overheating. And she powers down. She’s overheated, and she has run out of gas. And this is where the crank comes in. We have this delightful little device, which is situated in the prompter’s box. And our prompter actually cranks this to make the sound that you hear on stage. And it goes like this. (Cranking) (Laughs) It’s so not easy!
Now the second verse starts. And, I like to think of Olympia as a bit of a learning robot. So in the first verse, she’s kind of like a baby learning how to walk. And, in the second verse, she tries to outdo herself. And so we add ornaments, and we add melismas, and we add high notes and higher notes. It’s almost as if she’s getting excited about the possibilities.
The first person I ever heard sing this aria was Natalie Dessay, who I idolize, and who did this really crazy-awesome ornament at the very end, um, which is these triplets up to the high G above high C. And I loved it so much that I stole it. (Laughs) We all steal good things from each other.
I absolutely love singing this role. She has to be sung mechanically and precisely, but she also has to be alive. And, when the aria ends, there’s this fanfare, as if it’s the end of the circus. And the audience starts clapping on stage and in the hall. And it’s really one of the most happy moments on stage for me.
READ: Bliss Funding / Throw to break
BEN BLISS: There’s no doubt that Erin is one of the great voices and artists of our modern world of opera – and I might add she is a great colleague ad a very good friend. Amazing.
The Met’s Live in HD series is made possible thanks to its founding sponsor the Neubauer Family Foundation. Digital support is provided by Bloomberg Philanthropies. The Met’s Live in HD series is supported by Rolex. Today’s performance of Les Contes D’Hoffmann will be heard later this season over the Robert K. Johnson Foundation Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network. We’ll be back after a short break.
INTERVIEW: Bliss w/ Marco Armiliato
BEN BLISS: Welcome back. Our conductor Marco Armiliato is celebrating a major milestone today. Hello, Maestro.
MARCO ARMILIATO: Ciao, Ben. How are you?
BEN BLISS: I’m very well, thank you. But I want to congratulate you on today, which is your 500th performance at the Met. Did you know that Toscanini only conducted here 480 times?
MARCO ARMILIATO: What it means? That I’m better than Toscanini? (Laughs) I’m kidding, of course.
BEN BLISS: (Laughs) Well, congratulations.
MARCO ARMILIATO: No, thank you. It’s a big number. I mean, like, I never take records of my score. But, you know, it’s happened day by day and Saturday they told me that. Actually, I didn’t know.
BEN BLISS: Yep, it really adds up, doesn’t it?
MARCO ARMILIATO: I love a round number and it’s amazing it happened today, it’s broadcasting to the whole world. It’s a special, special, special day for me.
BEN BLISS: It’s almost like you planned it that way.
MARCO ARMILIATO: It’s a round number on the HD – exactly. Yeah, I’m very proud. You know, being here with this phenomenal company for so many years and conducting so many different operas, different style with such a great orchestra, great chorus, great ambiance. Every time I come here I feel the energy in this house and it gives me the power to do that. And I’m still – I feel still young in a way because it is – it’s just this magical place that will make you – so...
BEN BLISS: It is magical and we’re so proud of you.
MARCO ARMILIATO: Thank you.
BEN BLISS: It’s great to be here with you on this day.
MARCO ARMILIATO: Thank you, thank you. Thank you so much.
BEN BLISS: So, after all of these performances, this is the first one of Les Contes D’Hoffmann that you’ve conducted at the Met.
MARCO ARMILIATO: Yeah.
BEN BLISS: So, tell us a bit about what you’re trying to achieve with the score.
MARCO ARMILIATO: The score is very special because it looks like a very easy approach like an operetta, but at the same time it’s a real opera. And it’s – it’s probably, to my point of view, it misses just that much to be a masterpiece. It’s a great opera already. Uh, to be like an opera like we mentioned masterpiece as Wagner and Parsifal or Falstaff, or Otello, and this opera is just a little step down for some reason. Maybe there is too many versions and no one was revised. So now we are playing the version – to me, it’s the most complete and nice. I feel comfortable with this version actually, after so many versions we heard in the world.
BEN BLISS: Absolutely. Well, I can tell you it works a lot. (Laughs)
MARCO ARMILIATO: Especially because I’ve got a great stellar cast.
BEN BLISS: Unbelievable.
MARCO ARMILIATO: I mean, without Ben this opera cannot be performed.
BEN BLISS: Indeed.
MARCO ARMILIATO: Yeah.
BEN BLISS: Well, congratulations, Maestro. We congratulate you today on your legendary career here at the Met.
MARCO ARMILIATO: Thank you so much. Thank you.
BEN BLISS: We’re looking forward to many more performances.
MARCO ARMILIATO: Absolutely. Thank you, Ben. Good luck for tonight.
BEN BLISS: Thank you very much. (Laughs)
MARCO ARMILIATO: All the best.
READ: Throw to Roll-in
BEN BLISS: Today’s production of Les Contes D’Hoffmann comes from the theatrical imagination of director Bartlett Sher, who worked with his crack design team of Michael Yeargan and Catherine Zuber to create a Kafka-esque world that we’ve been witnessing today. Fifteen years after the production premiered, Sher, Yeargan and Zuber sat down with us to take a look back at their mind-bending creation.
ROLL-IN C: Production Design
BARTLETT SHER: Offenbach was a very unique person. Uh, he was a German Jew, kind of very, very assimilated, uh, had an extraordinary output of very, um, magical, mysterious music, including the can-can, which he wrote and, uh, essentially transformed French sound in his own way. And I was always fascinated by why someone like Offenbach was attracted to the story of Hoffmann. It’s not a traditional dramatic structure, of you know, conflict, resolution, reckoning, finale.
CATHERINE ZUBER: I feel that Offenbach, um, was trying to inject a lot of whimsy into the piece. So, as a creative team, we didn't want to lose sight of not only the heavy subject matter but also the charm of it as well.
BARTLETT SHER: The structure of the opera, to many people, feels unusual. You have, um, the three sort of obsessions of his, and you see him move through all three. At the same time you have this almost medieval structure of the good angel and the bad angel sort of guiding him through it, um, in the form of the Villains and Nicklausse. So it’s chapters and you can tie it together then in the internal life, an internal journey of an artist to a reconciliation with himself.
MICHAEL YEARGAN: When the curtain goes up, you just see a dark space with these pieces of paper falling from above. And it sort of sets up that the whole thing is going to be a story and that he’s the person who’s going to create the story.
CATHERINE ZUBER: Offenbach never lived to see a production of this opera. And I know he was someone that, um, felt unless he got to see it, it wasn't ready. And I think it gives a director and a creative team license to kind of interpret it in, um, in a way that speaks to them.
BARTLETT SHER: The music itself does not suggest a contemporary setting, so we really tried to build a world that was a kind of decadent world of the twenties, where you could see somebody go through this sort of excessive, playful, dynamic, mad world with all of its wealth and, uh, fantasies and fancies.
The first setting is a kind of decadent one with the doll in this world of kind of, um, uh, almost like vaudeville.
MICHAEL YEARGAN: The actual idea for this set came from a kind of –of kind of a collage of toys and, uh – and things that you would make a doll with. Dolls are interesting because they’re beautiful things and they're made for children, but when you sort of take them out of context, they become very surreal. And we were sort of playing with a lot of that, with the things that hang in the air. There’s a snake toy that is coiled and that kind of curls down into the room at the very beginning. You know you're not in a real place; it’s a kind of a dream space.
CATHERINE ZUBER: What we wanted to look at was creating a world where the scientist was, uh, quite mad and capable of extreme, uh, interpretations of what it meant to be a human. We tapped into a lot of images from, uh, circus fairs that were prevalent in Europe at the turn of the last century, um, of a lot of unfortunate creatures that may have been victim of experimentation. Uh, so it wasn’t just creating a robot, which is Olympia, but also perhaps experimentation of things that were more, uh, sinister. So to feel that it was a place that was visually intriguing but also quite dangerous, potentially.
MICHAEL YEARGAN: It sort of, it goes back to the origins of what it’s really about, which is this man, and when you read those stories, they're very dark. The set itself is very dark, and what’s great about Cathy’s costumes is that they're so specific, you know exactly where you are.
CATHERINE ZUBER: One of the things we wanted was for Hoffmann to always be in his – the same costume, no matter what setting he’s in. And are these different settings a dreamscape or his imagination? So as the stories progress, they become more surreal and dreamlike.
BARTLETT SHER: It’s completing a full world. Opera is the only art form which allows you to kind of be that bold and that big, and to match huge sound against a huge visual palette in a way that you kind of love seeing by going to a place like the Metropolitan Opera and sitting down and being transported into a whole new world with kind of the most magnificent music you could ever, ever want to listen to.
INTERVIEW: Bliss w/ Christian Van Horn
BEN BLISS: Thank you, Bart, for transporting us. Now I get to speak with the artist who plays the four villains, my dear friend bass-baritone Christian Van Horn.
CHRISTIAN VAN HORN: (indiscernible)
BEN BLISS: Dude, it’s great to see you.
CHRISTIAN VAN HORN: Thank you. Thanks for having me here.
BEN BLISS: My pleasure. I mean, yeah, that was an amazing first prologue and first act. Uh, so tell us – basses get to play a lot of juicy villain roles in the opera world. In Hoffman, you get to play four of them. So, do you see them as four separate characters or more of kind of one character with different guises?
CHRISTIAN VAN HORN: You have to have a string going between each of them. I like to look at the villains as Hoffman himself, in a way that he’s – it’s that bad angel on your shoulder or the bad devil on your shoulder saying, you’re never going to be good enough.
BEN BLISS: Right.
CHRISTIAN VAN HORN: And so I like him – I like this production where he looks very similar. There are subtle differences but, for the most part, I really truly believe it’s Hoffman speaking to himself.
BEN BLISS: Interesting.
CHRISTIAN VAN HORN: Yeah.
BEN BLISS: So, among the different villains you play in this show, do you have a favorite?
CHRISTIAN VAN HORN: No doubt, Dr. Miracle is the most interesting one. The scene lies – the Antonia scene could really stand as its own one-act opera. But Dappertutto gets the “Diamond Aria” and it’s hard not to be enchanted into that too.
BEN BLISS: It’s always tough to choose –
CHRISTIAN VAN HORN: Yeah, I don’t want to choose, I don’t want to choose.
BEN BLISS: Good, good. We’ll let the audience choose. (Laughs) So, are you channeling any famous villains from history or the movies?
CHRISTIAN VAN HORN: You know, Robert Carson said to me as the villains, if you’re having fun, you’re doing it all right. Make sure that you, the singer, is having a great time. If you’re having a great time, then the villains are having a great time and we – we want to almost root for them. He says in a way you become sympathetic. So, I don’t know that I’m trans – you know, bringing, bringing all villains into my life; I think I’m just kind of like, making sure that I’m enjoying myself.
BEN BLISS: Yeah, well, you’re out there doing your thing, man. It sure looks like fun.
CHRISTIAN VAN HORN: Thank you.
BEN BLISS: So, I know you’ve sung quite a bit before with Benjamin Bernheim. You sang this opera together in some other leading stages and you also sang Faust where you played Mephistopheles, also the devil. So, have you guys developed your own good guy-bad guy chemistry?
CHRISTIAN VAN HORN: For sure. Ben and I have been all over the world with this good guy-bad guy and I – I can tell exactly where he’s going, you know, from one moment to the next. If Ben decides he’s going to make a change, I almost know what’s going to happen.
BEN BLISS: I love that.
CHRISTIAN VAN HORN: We have good chemistry, I think.
BEN BLISS: We can see it for sure. So, this is also your – not your first time playing a devilish character at the Met. You sang the title role in Boito’s Mefistofele and you sang Nick Shadow with yours truly in The Rake’s Progress. Uh, various different incarnations of the devil. So, what attracts you to these parts or is it more that these are just the best roles for your voice type?
CHRISTIAN VAN HORN: Well, certainly they were written for the low voice, of course.
BEN BLISS: Yeah.
CHRISTIAN VAN HORN: But I think I was always somebody who kind of quietly rooted for the bad guy.
BEN BLISS: (Laughs)
CHRISTIAN VAN HORN: It’s a little more fun than you handsome guys taking up all the screen.
BEN BLISS: Ah, well, you know, I tell you, sometimes it would be fun to be the devil instead of just loving the soprano.
CHRISTIAN VAN HORN: For sure. (Laughs)
BEN BLISS: But, you know, we play the roles we’re given.
CHRISTIAN VAN HORN: That’s right.
BEN BLISS: It’s a lot of fun. Well, Christian, it’s time to get back out there. Go do some devil stuff.
CHRISTIAN VAN HORN: Thank you, Ben. Appreciate it.
BEN BLISS: Thanks for speaking with me.
CHRISTIAN VAN HORN: Thanks, brother.
BEN BLISS: Have a good time.
CHRISTIAN VAN HORN: Thank you.
READ: Throw to Act II
BEN BLISS: So, with the end of the previous act, Hoffmann’s love affair with the robot, not surprisingly, ended badly. In the next act, we move on to the poet’s next amorous adventure with the heartsick singer Antonia. Here is Act Two.
INTERVIEW: Bliss w/ Pretty Yende
BEN BLISS: Brava, Pretty.
PRETTY YENDE: Thank you.
BEN BLISS: Oh, my gosh, that was incredible. Take a deep breath.
PRETTY YENDE: I need it.
BEN BLISS: (Laughs) That was amazing. It was a rapturous emotional end to the act and we essentially watched your character sing herself to death.
PRETTY YENDE: Yeah.
BEN BLISS: Oh, my gosh. That is – it’s dramatic.
PRETTY YENDE: Absolutely dramatic.
BEN BLISS: Yeah. So, tell us a little bit about Antonia. How do you find an emotional connection with this character?
PRETTY YENDE: Well, the whole piece is just written so perfectly. And I think the second act in particular musically, it’s so complete. But, um, it’s a different experience for me playing her this time because I share the loss of a mother. So, I lost my mother last year.
BEN BLISS: Oh.
PRETTY YENDE: So, that connection of knowing of losing somebody so dear and a mother in particular is something that is very deep which I share with her so much. And it’s incredible to see, as an artist, how far you can go and how much you can still protect yourself and not just fall into pieces on stage.
BEN BLISS: Yes, that sounds like a profound connection. I’m obviously very sorry to hear about your mother.
PRETTY YENDE: Thank you so much.
BEN BLISS: But I hope that the singing is helping to work through some of that.
PRETTY YENDE: Absolutely. Thank you.
BEN BLISS: That’s beautiful. So, can you talk to us a bit about some of the vocal challenges of this role and how you describe what Offenbach wrote for this character?
PRETTY YENDE: For me, it’s absolutely because it’s so deep, it’s finding that thin line, not to go over emotionally. So, to find the balance in between. Because particularly the trio is very demanding, not only dramatically but also vocally. So, for you to be able to know how to pace yourself and not get overwhelmed or carried away. Um, so it’s really, really a mind game.
BEN BLISS: Exactly. It’s like Johnny Cash said, walk the line, right?
PRETTY YENDE: Exactly.
BEN BLISS: (Laughs) Well, thank you so much for coming to speak with us, Pretty.
PRETTY YENDE: Such a – such a pleasure, thank you.
BEN BLISS: It’s great to hear you.
PRETTY YENDE: Thank you.
BEN BLISS: See you later.
PRETTY YENDE: Thank you.
INTERVIEW: Bliss w/ Tilman Michael
BEN BLISS: So, at the end of last season, the Met’s acclaimed chorus director Donald Palumbo stepped down after 17 seasons. Now the company has another exemplary artist in that role who is making his HD debut today, Tilman Michael. He’s with me now.
TILMAN MICHAEL: Hi.
BEN BLISS: Great to see you.
TILMAN MICHAEL: Great to see you.
BEN BLISS: Thank you so much for joining me. And bravo for the chorus’ outstanding performance today.
TILMAN MICHAEL: Thank you. Until – so far.
BEN BLISS: (Laughs) So far, so far. I have high hopes. Lots of confidence. It’s really, really beautiful. So, you’ve only been with the Met for a few months now but your position is quite important, to say the least, so we couldn’t start our Live in HD season without interviewing you. How does it feel so far?
TILMAN MICHAEL: Well, it’s great to be here. It is unbelievable. In a way the first weeks, uh, it felt like not really real, you know? But slowly now we have performances and slowly it starts to feel I’m here and I’m at this company and it’s great.
BEN BLISS: Yes, it takes a second to find your feet, right?
TILMAN MICHAEL: Yes, right. Yeah, yeah.
BEN BLISS: I feel that definitely. So, how is the Met chorus different from other choruses you’ve worked with?
TILMAN MICHAEL: Um, well, there are some excellent choruses also I worked in the past before in Germany. So, in a way, um, they are, uh, something special. Every chorus has got its own personality but it’s not been with – on the other hand, not so different from the opera choruses in Germany.
BEN BLISS: Right. Well, the music is the same at least, right? It’s not a new repertoire.
TILMAN MICHAEL: Absolutely, yeah, yeah.
BEN BLISS: So, in the first weeks of the season here you’ve already worked with the chorus on a wide range of repertoire. Not just Hoffmann but also Jeanine Tesori’s new opera Grounded, which we will see later tonight here on the Met stage. Also, Puccini’s Tosca, Verdi’s Rigoletto with Il Trovatore coming up next. So, coming from the bustling Opera Frankfurt in Germany, where you previously worked, does this feel like business as usual or is it a little bit different?
TILMAN MICHAEL: You know, usually it’s never at the opera. I would say in a way it’s always special and it’s never the same. But I am, of course, I’m used to these operas and I’m used to this kind of schedule and this, um, high intensity of working, of course, yeah.
BEN BLISS: Yeah.
TILMAN MICHAEL: So, it’s – it’s not so new for me, yeah.
BEN BLISS: Well, speaking of high intensity, I understand that you have moved from Germany to New York with your wife and your four young children. What has that transition been like? Oh, my gosh.
TILMAN MICHAEL: Well, it is an adventure, of course. I – I knew this, and I’m so much looking forward to this, to come and to explore this new, uh, surrounding and this new city and living in the U.S.
BEN BLISS: Well, it’s certainly a new chapter and we wish you the best, you and your family.
TILMAN MICHAEL: Thank you so much.
BEN BLISS: Yes, thank you so much for joining me today, Michael.
READ: Bliss Neubauer / Throw to break
BEN BLISS: So, the Met’s Live in HD series is made possible thanks to its founding sponsor, the Neubauer Family Foundation. Digital Support is provided by Bloomberg Philanthropies. The Met’s Live in HD series is sponsored by Rolex. We’ll be back after a break.
READ: PSA / Fundraising / Throw to HD Season Preview
BEN BLISS: Today marks the start of the 18th season of the Met’s Live in HD series. Many millions of people around the world have experienced extraordinary opera performances thanks to these cinema broadcasts. But as groundbreaking as the movie theatre transmissions are, opera on the big screen is not quite the same as opera in the big opera house. Nothing compares to the in-person experience of a great singer soaring over one of the world’s best orchestras. So, please come to the Met or visit your local opera company.
This season, the Met will present eight cinema transitions across a wide range of repertoire. Whether it’s a class work like Les Contes D’Hoffmann or a new opera like Grounded, the musical and production values are at the absolute highest artistic level. But putting on works of these standards is expensive and ticket sales cover only a fraction of the costs. The Met relies on opera lovers like you to help make up the difference. So, if you’re able to make a donation, please visit metopera.org/membership or call us at 1-800-MET-OPERA. you can also text HDLIVE to 44321 to make a contribution. Thank you for your support.
The Met has seven more movie theatre presentations coming up this season. Here’s a preview.
READ: Bliss intro Grounded clip
BEN BLISS: As we just saw, the net – the Met’s next cinema presentation will be Jeanine Tesori and George Brant’s new opera, Grounded, in which I’m very blessed to start opposite my dear friend mezzo soprano Emily D’Angelo in the leading female role of a fighter pilot who is grounded by the Airforce due to an unexpected pregnancy. Here’s an excerpt from Emily’s opening aria, “The Blue” in which she sings the reverie of flying a fighter jet through the open sky.
INTERVIEW: Bliss w/ Emily D’Angelo
BEN BLISS: Emily D’Angelo is with me now. Hello, Emily.
EMILY D'ANGELO: Hi, Ben.
BEN BLISS: (Laughs) How’s it going?
EMILY D'ANGELO: Good. How about you?
BEN BLISS: Welcome to the Met stage for the first time today.
EMILY D'ANGELO: Yes.
BEN BLISS: Certainly not the last.
EMILY D'ANGELO: No. Back later.
BEN BLISS: So, for our audiences who may not know much about Grounded yet, can you give us a quick overview of the story, who is your character Jess, what is her journey?
EMILY D'ANGELO: Yeah, so we first encounter Jess actually in her prison garb. And so this sets the – sets the scene for the whole piece, and then the rest of the opera is a flashback. So, her life turns upside down a few times. The first, uh, she’s a fighter pilot so she meets, uh, Eric, who is you in Wyoming and she finds herself pregnant so that’s her first twist. And the second comes when she goes back to work five years later and her commander informs her that she will no longer be flying her F16; she’s going to be droning from Creech Airforce Base in Nevada, Las Vegas.
BEN BLISS: Interesting.
EMILY D'ANGELO: Yes.
BEN BLISS: Talk about a twist.
EMILY D'ANGELO: Yes.
BEN BLISS: So, I don’t think I’m alone in really, really loving Jeanine Tesori’s music for this piece. How would you characterize it and can you tell us a bit about what you really enjoy about her writing?
EMILY D'ANGELO: Yeah. I loved this score the first moment I heard it. And her writing voice is so unique, she brings so many different styles to her – to her piece. And we hear her musical theatre influences, her national experiences and that all comes together in the grand opera of Grounded.
BEN BLISS: Well, speaking of coming together, she put this opera together and composed it specifically for you and your voice. So, can you tell us about what the journey was like? It must’ve been quite unique.
EMILY D'ANGELO: Yes, it was extraordinary. She, uh, took such an interest in coming to my voice lessons and getting to know my voice before she put pen to paper and started writing this character.
BEN BLISS: Wow.
EMILY D'ANGELO: So, yeah, that happened about six year ago –
BEN BLISS: Wow.
EMILY D'ANGELO: — was when we met first. So, she’s been hard at work ever since and, yeah, it’s amazing to be here finally putting it all together.
BEN BLISS: That is so cool.
EMILY D'ANGELO: Yeah.
BEN BLISS: I mean, what a rare experience that must be –
EMILY D'ANGELO: Yeah, amazing.
BEN BLISS: — especially with a composer of her caliber.
EMILY D'ANGELO: Mm hmm.
BEN BLISS: So, shifting topics slightly, you and I both grew up in the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindeman Young Artist Development Program –
EMILY D'ANGELO: Yeah, that’s right.
BEN BLISS: – which prepared us and has prepared many other young singers for careers on the Met stage and other leading opera stages all over the world. So, how does it feel to have gone from the Young Artist Program to opening the season in a lead role on the Met stage?
EMILY D'ANGELO: Oh, it’s been totally surreal. I mean, it’s – you can’t really describe it in words but it’s been amazing to be here, and I get to do so with you.
BEN BLISS: Oh, stop. (Laughs) So, I don’t need to remind you that we have a show tonight.
EMILY D'ANGELO: Yes.
BEN BLISS: So, go get some rest.
EMILY D'ANGELO: I’ll be here.
BEN BLISS: I will be resting soon.
EMILY D'ANGELO: Awesome.
BEN BLISS: And I’ll see you back here in a few hours.
EMILY D'ANGELO: Okay.
BEN BLISS: Thanks for coming to talk to me.
EMILY D'ANGELO: Thank you. Bye, Ben.
BEN BLISS: I’ll see you soon. (Laughs)
INTERVIEW: Bliss w/ Vasilisa Berzhanskaya & Clémentine Margaine
BEN BLISS: In just a few minutes, we’ll return to Les Contes D’Hoffmann but first I’m joined by a pair of extremely gifted mezzo sopranos, our Giulietta, Clémentine Margaine and our Nicklausse, Vasilisa Berzhanskaya. Hi, guys.
VASILISA BERZHANSKAYA: Hello.
CLÉMENTINE MARGAINE: Hello.
BEN BLISS: Welcome to HD intermission interviews.
VASILISA BERZHANSKAYA: Thank you.
BEN BLISS: So, Vasilisa, I’d like to speak with your first. Congratulations on making your Met debut.
VASILISA BERZHANSKAYA: Thank you.
BEN BLISS: That is amazing. What’s your time at the Met been like? Are you enjoying yourself?
VASILISA BERZHANSKAYA: Of course. So exciting, so happy, enjoying every, every minute to be on this stage.
BEN BLISS: What an experience.
VASILISA BERZHANSKAYA: Yeah.
BEN BLISS: And Clémentine – am I saying that right, Clémentine?
CLÉMENTINE MARGAINE: Exactly. Perfect.
BEN BLISS: Ah, very good. Lucky me. So, after seeing you in your signature role of Carmen, Met audiences are excited to see you as a different femme fatale. Can you tell me a bit about your upcoming portrayal of Giulietta in the next act? And what happens after another one of Hoffmann’s failed conquests?
CLÉMENTINE MARGAINE: Yeah, I mean, it’s true that there are some similarities between the two roles and, uh, they are very seductive, of course. I would say that Giulietta is shorter, which is nice.
BEN BLISS: (Laughs)
CLÉMENTINE MARGAINE: And, uh – and she’s, she’s more on the evil side, you know, flirting with Nicklausse and Dappertutto. So, it’s fun to play the evil-evil. You know, with Carmen I always try to make her nicer.
BEN BLISS: Right.
CLÉMENTINE MARGAINE: And the woman struggling with, you know, men and her life. And this is pure evil. So, that’s nice.
BEN BLISS: All the singers and actors I talk to, it seems like across the board, evil characters are more fun. Right?
CLÉMENTINE MARGAINE: Of course. Of course, we love that. (Laughs)
BEN BLISS: What is that? What are we saying about ourselves?
CLÉMENTINE MARGAINE: I don’t know. (indiscernible) later.
BEN BLISS: (Laughs) So, everyone is looking forward to hearing both of you sing in one of opera’s most famous and beautiful duets, “The Barcarole” coming up shortly. What do each of you try to bring to this duet to make it your own? Vasilisa?
VASILISA BERZHANSKAYA: For me, this is the most beautiful moment of this opera. And, of course, we have to bring just the beauty – beauty of the voice, beauty of the presence of everything.
CLÉMENTINE MARGAINE: And it’s not so often that we have the chance to sing a duet between two mezzos.
VASILISA BERZHANSKAYA: Absolutely.
BEN BLISS: Yes.
CLÉMENTINE MARGAINE: So we – we share our lower harmonics and it’s really nice too, yeah.
BEN BLISS: You’ve got to lead into it. I can’t wait – can’t wait to hear it. So, Vasilisa, your repertoire ranges from baroque to bel canto to Bizet. Is this the first time you’ve sung Offenbach
VASILISA BERZHANSKAYA: Actually, it’s my second time.
BEN BLISS: Okay.
VASILISA BERZHANSKAYA: Before that, I did an operetta by Offenbach in Salzburg, yeah.
BEN BLISS: Okay. Is this your first time in this role in this opera?
VASILISA BERZHANSKAYA: But this is my big debut, role debut, and house debut.
BEN BLISS: Wow. Wow, that is amazing. Congratulations.
VASILISA BERZHANSKAYA: Thank you.
BEN BLISS: Smash hit, to say the least.
VASILISA BERZHANSKAYA: Thank you.
BEN BLISS: What particularly do you connect with and like about Offenbach’s music?
VASILISA BERZHANSKAYA: Oh, first, of course, it’s so beautiful, so powerful and the audience just enjoying every minute. It’s so interesting to watch, to hear. And my character, especially in this production, is so powerful. I have really a lot to tell to the audience.
BEN BLISS: Fabulous. Can’t wait to see more.
BEN BLISS: So, Clémentine and Vasilisa, thank you so much. It’s time to get on to Act Three. Toi toi toi.
CLÉMENTINE MARGAINE: Thank you. Toi toi toi.
VASILISA BERZHANSKAYA: Toi toi toi.
BEN BLISS: Enjoy the third act. We will too.
VASILISA BERZHANSKAYA: We will too.
READ: Throw to Act III & Epilogue
BEN BLISS: At the end of the previous act, Hoffmann has lost the second of his three loves. With Act Three we meet the beguiling Giulietta and ultimately discover what the poet has learned from his romantic adventures. Here is the conclusion of Les Contes D’Hoffmann.