Metropolitan Opera Archives

Kenneth Riegel of West Hamburg, Pa., was Hoffmann. His voice was clear and focused, with pleasing timbre. Even when he was singing high, he didn't sound constricted. He doesn't immediately take command of the stage in the prologue, but he holds his own thereafter.

Gianna Rolandi was Olympia, the mechanical doll of Act One and, Hoffmann's first love. She proved, as has Beverly Sills, that a soprano doesn't have to be tiny to be good in this part. Rolandi sang splendidly, played it a little less broadly than Sills did and proved just as funny, or funnier.

Tatiana Troyanos was Giulietta of the second act. The famous "Barcarole" of this act isn't the best part of it. We think it's the duet between hero and villain, then Giulietta joining in, then addition of the chorus, just before the end.

James Morris varied his sound as he played all the villains. He sang in a rich, juicy way in the prologue, sounded seductively evil in Act Two and was cold and implacable in Act Three.

He and Catherine Malfitano, the girl he is destroying in Act Three, starkly lighted, their faces white, he in black leather and she in white, are a chilling sight, gesturing toward each other with great tension across the stage. Her mother, meanwhile, sung with persuasive power by Lili Chookasian, is the only spot of color in the scene inside a picture frame, a portrait come to life. Malfitano projected a trained but unspoiled sound, perfect for her "dear young lady" part.

Andrea Velis, with deft comic timing, had four parts. The mechanical doll only backhanded him once after he wound her up; thereafter he ducked. And, in the last act, as an old servant trying to practice ballet, he lands one leg atop a table.

Search by season: 1982-83

Search by title: Les Contes d'Hoffmann,

Met careers