The Tales of Hoffmann

Nurnberg. Poet ETA Hoffman has gone to the theater to watch his current love, Stella, a prima ballerina, dance the lead in The Enchanted Dragonfly. Stella has left a note backstage to be delivered to Hoffmann, it professing her love in return which is meant as encouragement for him to go see her during the intermission. However, Lindorf, Hoffmann's arch rival, bribes the stagehand and intercepts the note which Hoffmann thus does not receive. As such, Hoffmann, like the theatergoers are encouraged to do, instead goes to Luther's Beer Cellar during the intermission. There, Hoffmann, fearing the worst in having seen Lindorf and not having heard from Stella, proceeds to tell the others the story of three of his past loves, Olympia, Giulietta, and Antonia, all three stories which have aspects of fantasy in them, and all three loves which were doomed to fail in inherent problems. Hoffmann, in his melancholy state, and in the telling of these stories, may seal his fate with Stella.