As we did research for this season’s Tales of Hoffmann for this season, I was repeatedly amazed and inspired by the real-life hero of Offenbach’s opera. I kicked the challenge over to WTOC coach/pianist Jeremy Frank and a quartet of singers, and tonight they’ll present a free talk and concert that includes vocal music written by Hoffmann (including an excerpt from his opera Undine), music inspired by Hoffmann’s short stories (an excerpt from Schumann’s Kreisleriana), viewing of his own sketches and caricatures, and a two-degrees-of-separation finale involving Hoffmann, Edgar Allan Poe and Philip Glass.
The Tale(nt)s of Hoffmann
A free concert at the Center for Education (1645 Trap Road, Vienna VA)
Friday, August 12 at 7:3opm
Jeremy Frank, pianist and host
Ashlyn Rust, soprano
Lindsay Ammann, contralto
Eric Barry, tenor
Michael Anthony McGee, baritone
with Jason Lee, tenor
and Grant Loehnig at the Yamaha Zauberklavier
I was struck by the excerpt from the Fall of the House of Usher, particularly Ashlyn Rust’s Madeline. Have you considered doing the opera? You can clearly find singers for it. It’d fit in your pit.