The 80s forum is the only one without a post so far, so let's remedy that with a bit of yer actual culture.
Still not sure when the revised and expanded version of 'Dead or Alive' will be out (Midnight Marquee have had it for two years but have a busy schedule at present), so here's a sneak preview of one of the newly added pieces from it. There are several operas covered in the new book - this is one of them:
LES CONTES D'HOFFMANN
1981
D: Brian Large
I have to confess a great fondness for the daft comedy romp HONKY TONK FREEWAY, released in 1981 and widely regarded as John Schlesinger's first major flop. After two decades as a director, during which time he had delivered MIDNIGHT COWBOY, MARATHON MAN, BILLY LIAR, DARLING, and FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD amongst a genuine variety of critical and audience successes, Schlesinger's financial disaster here (a $2 million return on a budget more than ten times the size) gave me a great time when I paid to see it at my local cinema, and had me chuckling once more when I rented it on home video a few months later.
Schlesinger's movie career never again reached his 60s and 70s heights, but he found acclaim and awards coming his way via television, with An Englishman Abroad and A Question Of Attribution both receiving BAFTAs. Never seen as a Renaissance man as such, perhaps he deserved a greater reputation along such lines, since he also worked in theatre, directing for the Royal Shakespeare Company as well as staging George Bernard Shaw's 'Heartbreak House'; in 1992 he even directed a Party Political Broadcast that helped John Major to an unexpected election victory. He made several documentaries including TERMINUS (1961), and from 1980 he began to dabble in opera too.
Schlesinger's first venture into the world of tenors, sopranos, and 'fat ladies singing' was a new production of Jacques Offenbach's 'The Tales Of Hoffmann', performed at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. The venue's own website describes it as "sumptuous" and "a classic in the Royal Opera's repertory". And, in the same year as HONKY TONK FREEWAY, a live recording of LES CONTES D'HOFFMANN was captured on camera for broadcast by BBC2, and simultaneously on Radio 3.
Schlesinger received the producer credit, while Brian Large directed the telecast. Large is regarded by aficionados as one of the major figures in the world of televised opera, having worked in that capacity for the BBC from the mid-sixties to 1980 and then filming for the Royal Opera thereafter. LES CONTES D'HOFFMANN, right on the cusp of that career change, stars the globally renowned Spanish tenor Placido Domingo as dark fantasy writer E.T.A. Hoffmann himself. Previously and unsurpassably filmed for cinema in 1951 by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger as THE TALES OF HOFFMANN, the Offenbach work features a boozy tavern-set extended prologue, leading to three separate fantastical episodes each detailing the experiences of a particular target of the scribe's affections - Olympia (a mechanical dancing doll), Antonia (a suffering beauty who may die if she sings), and Giulietta (who attempts to steal the author's mirror reflection).
Large manages to keep this a lively and interesting two-and-a-half hours even for the uninitiated, with the sombre, unobtrusive sets being effectively captured by his cameras, and the on-stage action being nicely framed (and not always merely head-on from the front stalls either). Even as something of a philistine when it comes to 'the classics', I have to admit that Domingo's powerful performance and striking voice hits home, and it's also pleasing to find Robert Lloyd (later to star in Leslie Megahey's DUKE BLUEBEARD'S CASTLE) in a featured role as Lindorf.
The 'Olympia' episode, based on Hoffmann's 'Der Sandmann', features a heavily made-up Luciana Serra as the performing automaton, stitched into a detailed meringue frock and whirling about the stage, as do a handful of male robot minions. Her dismemberment at the climax (a stunning moment in the Archers' 1951 movie) is rather thrown away, though the image of Domingo desperately clutching at her faceless, WESTWORLD-like mechanical 'corpse' (while laughing onlooker Lindorf's clockwork heart pops out on a spring!) is pretty indelible.
A sinister turn was taken by Schlesinger and his set/costume designers for act two, 'Giulietta'. Siegmund Nimsgern's satanic 'Dapetutto' arrives done up like a gothic glam rocker, and yes he wants Hoffmann to be in his gang - or the writer's essence at least, promising courtesan Giulietta (Agnes Baltsa) a jewel upon the capturing of his reflection. The lure of the glittering gemstone is a pull strong enough to entice her into the nefarious scheme, and Hoffmann's image is duly ensnared. Skulls, skeletal figures, crimson drapes, faceless assistants clad in dark robes, all set the tone for 35 minutes of operatic eeriness, also featuring a drifting gondola and offering the opportunity for Placido to display his fencing skills!
We conclude with 'Antonia', the tale of a young woman who loves to sing but seems cursed to die, fading with every note she warbles. Her late mother had suffered a similar terrible affliction; can the domineering, vampiric figure of 'Dr. Miracle' assist, or might he in fact be the root cause? Miracle is played by Nicola Ghiuselev; lank-haired, in chunky boots and a lengthy leather overcoat, he anticipates the 'goth' fashions of the mid-eighties while also having something of John Barrymore's 1920 Mr. Hyde about him.
John Schlesinger tried his hand at horror cinema in 1987 with the lukewarm, disappointing THE BELIEVERS. Avoid that one, but do expand your horizons and give the splendid LES CONTES D'HOFFMANN a try.
I suppose it's too late for me to correct my APPALLING syntax errors from the original print...