A Simply Grand Opera

If you happen to think of Grand Opera as something for stuffy old people, scroll down to the bottom of this post at Limpid Lech’s finds and take a look at this video excerpt from Act IV of Jacques Offenbach‘s Les contes d’Hoffmann. Great Venus!

NOS-Offenbach-HoffmannsErzaehlungen-Olivier_Py by berendboerke

I think — though I am not 100% certain — that the video excerpts a recent Geneva production by Olivier Py, with Marc Laho in the role of Hoffmann and Maria Riccarda Wesseling as Giulietta. You can find a French-language libretto here.

It just goes to prove what Anna Russell told us so long ago, that the beauty of Grand Opera is that you can get away with anything as long as you sing it.