tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20433842.post115693039595393911..comments2024-03-07T12:57:35.296-05:00Comments on Varieties of Unreligious Experience: The Divided Self: Part IIIConrad H. Rothhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01916542057749474124noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20433842.post-2060968717051836882007-02-11T13:58:00.000-05:002007-02-11T13:58:00.000-05:00Enjoyed the post -- especially the bizarre Shearer...Enjoyed the post -- especially the bizarre Shearer pun -- but Stella's significance in Offenbach goes a little further than you've indicated, although the state of his work is jumbled enough to make the error very easy. The only reason I can be relatively sure of what happens in the opera is that I've sung the title role.<BR/><BR/>As briefly as possible: Hoffman (one "n" in Offenbach) grudgingly admits his love for the actress Stella. After being provoked by his older, wealthier rival, he grudgingly accepts an invitation to tell of his amorous adventures. The entire opera takes place while the two of them wait for Stella to finish her stage performance (unseen). <BR/><BR/>First he tells of Olympia, a perfect creature who turns out to be a robot; next of the Venetian courtesan Giulietta, amoral, capricious and greedy, for whom he kills a man in a duel and so must flee; and finally of the earnest girl Antonia, whose mania for singing destroys her fragile health. In each of these "recollections" his hopes are ruined by the interference of a man strangely similar to his rival for Stella.<BR/><BR/>In the Epilogue, Hoffman's sidekick Nicklausse calls him out: These three women are simply reflections of your changing image of Stella, are they not? As if on cue, Stella appears in the tavern, but leaves on the arm of the bass villian. And, in productions that make the most sense, Nicklausse (a travesti role for mezzo-soprano), who has traveled everywhere with Hoffman on his real and imaginary wanderings and rescued him from himself many times, is revealed to have a dual nature, reappearing as The Muse.<BR/><BR/>In some productions the actress playing Stella is shown as his Muse, but as Hoffman has built his stories out of very little (apparently), I think this gives Stella too much credit. Other productions alter the sequence to place Giulietta after Antonia, which goes against both Offenbach's arrangement and Hoffman's development as a lover. In the beginning he is so blind that he loves a robot. He then moves on to a prostitute who, despite being alive, aware and enfleshed, nearly cajoles him into giving up his soul. And finally he arrives at the perfectly good Antonia whose one weakness is exploited by a force outside Hoffman's control. Hoffman sees Stella in an ever better light, and he also desires something ever better for himself. (That's my optimistic take on a somewhat depressing and pointless story.)<BR/><BR/>So his love has a triune nature, his friend a double, and his Muse is a solo artist.Shawn Thurishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09594444415956471021noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20433842.post-1157094788167300672006-09-01T03:13:00.000-04:002006-09-01T03:13:00.000-04:00Thanks, I think it's the first time this site has ...Thanks, I think it's the first time this site has been called 'beautiful'!Conrad H. Rothhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01916542057749474124noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20433842.post-1156935292124854682006-08-30T06:54:00.000-04:002006-08-30T06:54:00.000-04:00Beautiful blog!..I appreciate beauty, but don't ha...Beautiful blog!..<BR/>I appreciate beauty, but don't have the talent or intelligence to properly express my appreciation.<BR/>So I'll live through your words..Cynniehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05796562985485272298noreply@blogger.com