The only opera written by the famous operetta master Jacques Offenbach. The Russian musicologist and music critic Ivan Sollertinsky once called Jacques Offenbach one of the most gifted composers of the 19th century. The wit, magic, colorfulness, and musical grace of this composer's works are embodied in his "swan song" - the opera "The Tales of Hoffmann." The Russian stage was first struck by the performance back in 1884, and nearly a hundred years later - in 1986 - director Alexander Titel presented his first vision of "The Tales of Hoffmann" in Sverdlovsk. Now, the audience of the Moscow Academic Music Theatre named after Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko can see the production of Jacques Offenbach's opera, which premiered on May 5, 2011. Throughout three acts, characters from such novellas by Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann as "The Sandman," "The Tale of the Lost Image," and "Counselor Crespel" will come to life before the audience. The heroines of these plots - Olympia, Giulietta, and Antonia - become "three souls and three hearts" of Hoffmann's beloved - Stella. For the hero, this woman is the embodiment of true absoluteness. That is why he recalls the ideality of Olympia, who astonishes Hoffmann with her perfection, but later appears before him in the true form of a mechanical doll. For the same reason of searching for all facets of the ideal, the hero tells of the cruelty of Giulietta and the unfortunate fate of the art-devoted Antonia. Crazy feelings, striving for the higher and the ideal, shattered illusions - all this the hero experiences through memories. The whimsical plots of the German author's stories fully reflect the direction of his creativity, which Jacques Offenbach embodies in his music. The lyrical talent of the composer is especially vividly manifested, for example, in Hoffmann's song ("The Legend of Kleinzak"), in Olympia's verses, and in the barcarolle from the story of Giulietta. The embodiment of the darkness of the narrative becomes special, as even the plots of the novellas themselves contain the tragedy of the main characters' fates.