Epilogue.

Present!

 

(He feels Antonia’s pulse.)

 

Dead!

 

C (crazy).

 

Ah, God, my child, my daughter!

 

H (despairingly).

 

Antonia!

 

EPILOGUE.

 

(Same scene as First Act. The various personages are in the same positions they

were in at the end of First Act.)

 

H .

 

There is the story

Of my loves,

And the memory

In my heart will always remain.

 

C .

 

Bravo, bravo, Hoffmann.

 

H .

 

Ah, I am mad. For us the craze divine,

The spirits of alcohol, of beer and of wine,

For us intoxication,

Chaos where we forget.

 

N .

 

Ah, I understand, three dramas in a drama, Olympia...

 

H .

 

Smashed!

N .

 

Antonia...

 

H .

 

Dead!

 

N .

 

Giulietta...

 

H .

 

Oh, for her, the last verse of the song of Klein-Zach. When he drank too much gin or rack,

You ought to have seen the two tails at his back,

Like lilies in a lac,

The monster made a sound of flick flack,

Flic, flac,

There’s Klein-Zach.

 

C .

 

Flick flack,

There’s Klein-Zach.

 

C .

 

Light up the punch, drunk we’ll get;

And may the weakest

Roll under the table;

Luther was a goodly man,

Tire lan laire, tire lan la,

etc., etc.

 

(The students tumultuously go in the next room. Hoffmann remains as if in a

stupor.)

 

T M (appearing in an aureole of light).

 

And I? I, the faithful friend,

Whose hand wiped thy tears?

By whom thy latent sorrow

Exhales in heavenly dreams?

Am I nothing? May the tempest

Of passion pass away in thee!

The man is no more; the poet revives

I love thee Hoffmann! be mine!

Let the ashes of thy heart fire thy genius,

Whose serenity smiles on thy sorrows.

The Muse will soften thy blessed sufferings.

One is great by love but greater by tears.

 

(She disappears.)

 

H (alone).

 

Oh God! what ecstasy embraces my soul,

Like a concert divine Thy voice hath moved me,

With soft and burning fire my being is devoured,

Thy glances in mine have suffused their flame,

Like radiant stars.

And I feel, beloved Muse,

Thy perfumed breath flutter

On my lips and on my eyes!

 

(He falls face on table.)

 

S (approaching slowly).

 

Hoffmann? asleep...

 

N .

 

No, dead drunk. Too late, madame.

 

L .

 

Corbleu!

 

N .

 

Oh, here is the counselor, Lindorf, who awaits you.

 

(Stella keeps her eyes on Hoffmann and throws a flower at his feet as she goes out

with Lindorf.)

 

THE END.

[Sheet Music]

MIDI

PDF

LilyPond source

Original typesetting, page [1] [2] [3] [4]

 

Transcriber’s note: Both the English and the French texts are known to have a significant number of errors, misprints, and inconsistencies. They are here presented without correction.

 

N E W V E R S I O N

 

O F

 

Les Contes

 

d’Hoffmann

 

(THE TALES OF HOFFMAN)

 

OPERA IN FOUR ACTS

 

With an original and novel first Act and other

important changes

 

Book by JULES BARBIER

 

MUSIC BY

 

J . O F F E N B A C H

 

New English version by CHARLES ALFRED

BYRNE

As performed, for the first time in America at the

 

M A N H A T T A N O P E R A H O U S E ,

U N D E R T H E D I R E C T I O N O F

O S C A R H A M M E R S T E I N .

 

ENGLISH VERSION, 1907, BY STEINWAY & SONS.

 

CHARLES E. BURDEN, PUBLISHER, STEINWAY HALL

107-109 E 14 S

NEW YORK.

 

D R A M AT I S P E R S O N Æ .

 

HOFFMANN

COUNSELOR LINDORF

COPPELIUS

DAPERTUTTO

DOCTOR MIRACLE

SPALANZANI

CRESPEL

ANDRES

COCHENILLE

FRANTZ

LUTHER

NATHANAEL