Jacques Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann is based on three short stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann, with the French libretto having been written by Jules Barbier. It premiered at the Théâtre National de l’Opéra-Comique in Paris on 10 February 1881, but Offenbach never got to see it having died four months earlier. It had, however, been presented in an abridged form at the composer’s house, 8 Boulevard des Capucines, on 18 May 1879, and a version that...