This 2001 EMI Classics release features a 1970s recording of Offenbach's unfinished opera "Hoffmanns Erzählungen," a work that would later be completed and recognized as his magnum opus.
- The recording was made in 1978 at the Kingsway Hall in London.
- The cast includes leading Wagnerian tenor Thomas Moser as Hoffmann and the notable coloratura soprano Edita Gruberová as the various heroines.
- The opera's premiere in 1881, posthumously, was met with mixed reviews, and it wasn't until the 20th century that it gained its place in the standard operatic repertoire.
Jacques Offenbach was a German-born composer and cellist, best known for his 19th-century French operettas. He was a central figure in Parisian musical life, and his works satirized societal norms and conventions.
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