Four women, one doomed poet, and a devil who won't quit — opera's most gloriously unhinged fever dream.
Acting
Alan Held's quadruple villain turns one bass into four distinct flavors of malevolent charm.
Production
Sher's frame narrative transforms the opera into Hoffmann's own fevered autobiography.
Acting
Netrebko's Antonia shatters — her death scene is vocal acting of devastating precision.
Director
Bartlett Sher
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Offenbach died before completing the opera; editions have been fighting over the 'correct' order of acts for 140 years. Sher chose the traditional Giulietta-Antonia-Olympia sequence.
The 2009 Met production marked Netrebko's first Antonia — she learned the role in six weeks after dropping another opera, delivering what critics called a career-defining performance.
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