Dancer and movie star Moira Shearer was born on this date 100 years ago. The striking Scottish ballerina with fiery red hair first earned recognition through her work with the Sadler’s Wells Ballet, but soon achieved world fame through her appearances, in Technicolor, in indelible Powell-Pressburger classics such as “The Tales of Hoffmann” and “The Red Shoes.”
Once seen, who can forget the surreal sequence in which her life-like mechanized doll, Olympia, is dismembered and dismantled before our very eyes, mostly through the magic of practical effects? Zombie maestro George A. Romero, director of “Night of the Living Dead,” cited “The Tales of Hoffmann” as his favorite film of all time, and the one that set him on a career of making movies.
And then of course, there’s “The Red Shoes,” choreographed by Robert Helpmann, who seemed to devote his cinematic career to refining nightmare fuel, up to and including his appearance as the Child Catcher in “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.” Robert Helpmann and Hans Christian Anderson – what could possibly go wrong?
Join me for music from “The Tales of Hoffmann” and “The Red Shoes,” as well as selections from two of Shearer’s ballet triumphs at the Sadler’s Wells, “The Sleeping Beauty” and “Coppélia” (the latter based on the same E.T.A. Hoffmann short story that inspired the doll sequence in the Powell-Pressburger adaptation of Offenbach’s opera).
Strap on your demonic dancing shoes. It’s an hour of music for Moira Shearer on “Sweetness and Light,” this Saturday morning at 11:00 EST/8:00 PST, exclusively on KWAX Classical Oregon!
Stream it, wherever you are, at the link:
https://kwax.uoregon.edu/
Tag: The Tales of Hoffmann
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Technicolor Moira Shearer, for Her Centenary, on “Sweetness and Light”
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Romero’s Zombies & Offenbach’s Opera
I just love the fact that the father of the modern zombie movie was inspired at the age 11 or 12 by Jacques Offenbach’s “The Tales of Hoffmann!”
George A. Romero, the animating force behind “Night of the Living Dead,” pays tribute to Powell-Pressburger’s bizarre masterpiece at the link. This is the same team that refined nightmare fuel with “The Red Shoes.”
Offenbach was a cello virtuoso who made his fortune as a hugely-successful composer of operetta. He wrote something like 100 of them, including “Orpheus in the Underworld,” which gave us this leggy earworm:
His only opera, “The Tales of Hoffmann,” is his magnum opus. Unfortunately, by the time it was accepted for performance at Paris’ Opéra-Comique, the composer was already in his grave. In fact, he died with the manuscript in his hand, only four months before the work’s premiere.
Debussy noted that the musical establishment of the day had difficulty coping with Offenbach’s sense of irony. Offenbach would no doubt have appreciated the fact that, like one of Romero’s zombies, he was, in a sense, reanimated after death. “The Tales of Hoffmann” has not been out of the repertoire since its premiere in 1881.
Happy birthday, Jacques Offenbach!
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Jacques Offenbach 200th Birthday Celebration
Here comes the “Can Can” man!
Today marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Jacques Offenbach.
Like Victor Herbert, who was born 40 years later, Jacques Offenbach was a master of operetta who gained experience as a cellist in theater orchestras. (Herbert even made it as far as the Metropolitan Opera.)
In Offenbach’s case, he finally attained a permanent position at Paris’ Opéra-Comique. Of course, his temperament was such that he was always getting busted down in pay for playing pranks. Once, he rigged everyone’s music stands to collapse in mid-performance.
Nevertheless, he managed to make a favorable impression on composer and conductor Fromental Halévy, who gave him private lessons in composition and orchestration. (Offenbach had left the Paris Conservatory out of boredom a year into his formal studies.)
With the help of Friedrich von Flotow, another future luminary of the musical stage, Offenbach gained access to the salon circuit. In this way, he bolstered his reputation as a performer and a composer. He toured France and Germany, performing with musicians such as Liszt and Anton Rubinstein. In England, he met Mendelssohn and Joseph Joachim.
Upon his return to Paris, he subtly altered his image from a cellist who happened to compose to a composer who played the cello. When the salons began to dry up, Offenbach gained employment as the musical director of the Comédie Française. There, he gained valuable experience actually writing for the stage, though his success did not transfer to the Opéra-Comique. Debussy noted that the musical establishment of the time had difficulty coping with the composer’s sense of irony.
By the time Offenbach finally did crack the Opéra-Comique with “The Tales of Hoffmann,” he was already in the grave. Though he died before putting the finishing touches on his opera, the orchestration was completed by other hands, and the work has not been out of the repertoire since.
Somewhere in heaven, undoubtedly, Offenbach is sawing half-way through the columns of the harps and enjoying the last laugh.
Happy birthday, Jacques Offenbach!
The scherzo from Offenbach’s Cello Quartet:
His greatest hit:
The lovely “Barcarolle:”
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Jacques Offenbach A Master of Operetta
Like Victor Herbert – though born 40 years earlier, in 1819 – Jacques Offenbach was a master of operetta who gained experience as a cellist in theater orchestras. (Herbert even made it as far as the Metropolitan Opera.)
In Offenbach’s case, he finally attained a permanent position at Paris’ Opéra-Comique. Of course, his temperament was such that he was always getting busted down in pay for playing pranks during performances. Once, he rigged everyone’s music stands to collapse in mid-performance.
Nevertheless, he managed to make a favorable impression on composer and conductor Fromental Halévy, who gave him private lessons in composition and orchestration. (Offenbach had left the Paris Conservatory out of boredom a year into his formal studies.)
With the help of Friedrich von Flotow, another future luminary of the musical stage, Offenbach gained access to the salon circuit. In this way, he bolstered his reputation as a performer and a composer. He toured France and Germany, performing with musicians such as Liszt and Anton Rubinstein. In England, he met Mendelssohn and Joseph Joachim.
Upon his return to Paris, he subtly altered his image from a cellist who happened to compose to a composer who played the cello. When the salons began to dry up, Offenbach gained employment as the musical director of the Comédie Française. There, he gained valuable experience actually writing for the stage, though his success did not transfer to the Opéra-Comique. Debussy noted that the musical establishment of the time had difficulty coping with the composer’s sense of irony.
By the time Offenbach finally did crack the Opéra-Comique with “The Tales of Hoffmann,” he was already in the grave. Though he died before putting the finishing touches on his opera, the orchestration was completed by other hands, and the work has not been out of the repertoire since.
Undoubtedly, somewhere in heaven, Offenbach is sawing half-way through the columns of the harps, and enjoying the last laugh.
Happy birthday, Jacques Offenbach!
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