The world’s most famous love story comes to operatic life with Anna Netrebko and Roberto Alagna as the star-crossed young couple. Gounod’s ultra-sensual Shakespeare interpretation also features Nathan Gunn as Mercutio and Isabel Leonard, in her Met debut, as Stéphano. Plácido Domingo is on the podium.

Art or life? Dream or reality? Lover or fantasy? Hoffman, a poet, is torn between these opposites. His love for Stella, the acclaimed singer, remains unrequited, and he takes refuge in alcohol and the world of his imagination. Over the course of a wine-soaked evening, he tells his friends of three fantastical love affairs. Olympia, in whose immaculate beauty he fell head over heels in love – only to discover that the woman he so desperately wanted was a doll. Antonia, who was consumed by feverish song – and died in Hoffmann’s arms. And Giulietta, the Venetian courtesan, who swore him undying love – and seduced him with the singular goal of stealing his reflection. Each time, Hoffmann failed. Either it was his own fault, or love’s fault, or the fault of his diabolical adversary, who goes by many names: Lindorf, Coppélius, Dapertutto, or Dr. Miracle. Jacques Offenbach made E.T.A. Hoffman, the most famous Romantic poet, the central figure in his final (and only serious) opera. In his protagonist’s magical-surrealistic tales, Offenbach explores the threshold between reality and fantasy. He masterfully combines hints of operetta, sentimental opera comique, and romantic-fantasy opera. Inventive melodic turns combine with gripping drama, and there is Offenbach’s subtle irony, which interrupts the main character’s rapturous emotions time and again. For this new production, tenor Saimir Pirgu, known to Zurich audiences for his interpretation of the Duca in Verdi’s Rigoletto, takes on the role of Hoffmann. Intendant Andreas Homoki will direct for the stage. And at the podium of the Philharmonia Zürich is Italian conductor Antonino Fogliani, who is on the cusp of an international career.