Gretel Urban Designed Costumes for Newly Staged Les Contes d’Hoffmann

Summary: Gretel Urban designed costumes for the U.S. Turandot premiere at the Metropolitan Opera, which opened during the opera house’s 1926-1927 season.

Gretel Urban designed costumes for the Metropolitan Opera’s second of six stagings of Jacques Offenbach’s “opéra fantastique: The Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera, via Facebook July 6, 2017

Gretel Urban designed costumes for the newly staged Les Contes d’Hoffmann by German-born French composer Jacques Offenbach (June 20, 1819-Oct. 5, 1880) for the Metropolitan Opera’s 1924-1925 season.

Opening night for the new production was Nov. 13, 1924. The Metropolitan Opera Archives Database records nine performances for the season.

Viennese stage director Wilhelm von Wymetal Sr. (1862-Nov. 11, 1937) directed the new production. Gretel’s father, Austrian-American architect, illustrator and set designer Joseph Urban (May 26, 1872-July 10, 1933), designed the settings.

Music critic Oscar Thompson (Oct. 10, 1887-July 3, 1945) lauded the newly staged Les Contes d’Hoffmann. “After a sleep of ten seasons, Offenbach’s ‘Tales of Hoffmann’ was sung once more at the Metropolitan Opera House on the evening of Nov. 13 before an immense audience,” he stated in a review in the Nov. 22, 1924, issue of Musical America.

Les Contes d’Hoffmann numbered as the tenth collaboration between Gretel and her father. Gretel designed costumes for 18 productions in her almost 13-year career at the Metropolitan Opera. She collaborated with her father on 17 productions.

The Metropolitan Opera premiere of Guillaume Tell by Italian composer Gioachino Rossini (Feb. 29, 1792-Nov. 13, 1868) was the only production on which Gretel worked without her father. Guillaume Tell, which premiered Jan. 5, 1923, at Met Opera, was Gretel’s eighth costume production.

Les Contes d’Hoffmann represented Gretel’s second of nine productions directed by von Wymetal. She first appeared on his design team for the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Thaïs by Jules Massenet (May 12, 1842-Aug. 13, 1912) for the 1922-1923 season.

Gretel’s last Met Opera costumes were designed for the opera house’s 1927-1928 new production of Hänsel und Gretel by German composer Engelbert Humperdinck (Sept. 1, 1854-Sept. 27, 1921). Opening night was Nov. 5, 1927. Wilhelm von Wymetal directed the production. Gretel’s father designed the sets.

Les Contes d’Hoffmann opened as a Metropolitan Opera premiere Jan. 11, 1913. Jules Speck, who was the Metropolitan Opera's stage manager for French and Italian operas, directed the premiere production. Burghart & Co. designed the sets. Italian designer Attilio Giuseppe de Comelli von Stuckenfeld (1858-Sept. 8, 1925), known as Attilio Comelli, costumed the premiere production. The last performance of Speck’s production took place April 27, 1915.

Including the 1913 premiere and the 1924 new production, the Metropolitan Opera has launched six productions of Les Contes d’Hoffmann. The third production replaced the 1924 staging 31 years later, debuting Nov. 14, 1955. Australian screen, stage and television actor and director Cyril Joseph Trimnell-Ritchard (Dec. 1, 1898-Dec. 18, 1977), known professionally as Cyril Ritchard, directed the third production. Production designs were conceived by German-American artist and designer Rolf Gérard (Aug. 9, 1909-Nov. 19, 2011). The third production’s last performance occurred April 17, 1971.

The fourth production debuted Nov. 29, 1973. American director Bliss Hebert marked his Metropolitan Opera debut as the production’s director. American costume and scenic designer Allen Charles Klein was the fourth production’s designer. The fourth production’s performances did not extend past the 1973-1974 season.

The fifth production debuted March 8, 1982. Austrian actor and opera and theater director Otto Schenk directed the production. His production team included German-Austrian stage designer Günther Schneider-Siemssen (June 7, 1926-June 2, 2015) as set designer and Gaby Frey as costume designer. The fifth production’s last performance happened Jan. 8, 2005.

The sixth and current production debuted Dec. 3, 2009. American theater director Barlett Sher is the production director. His production team includes Michael Yeargan as set designer and Catherine Zuber as costume designer.

The takeaways for Gretel Urban’s costume designs for the newly staged Les Contes d’Hoffmann during Metropolitan Opera’s 1924-1925 season are that the Austrian-American costumer was involved in her tenth Met Opera production and that the new production revitalized Offenbach’s “opéra fantastique” as a recurring fixture in Met Opera’s active repertoire.

Gretel Urban’s designs for the Chorus, Act II, Les Contes d’Hoffmann: Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera, via Twitter July 6, 2017

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Gretel Urban designed costumes for the Metropolitan Opera’s second of six stagings of Jacques Offenbach’s “opéra fantastique: The Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera, via Facebook July 6, 2017, @ https://www.facebook.com/MetOpera/posts/10159091443910533

Gretel Urban’s designs for the Chorus, Act II, Les Contes d’Hoffmann: Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera, via Twitter July 6, 2017, @ https://twitter.com/MetOpera/status/883014149462216704

For further information:

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“Debuts: Thomas Chalmers, Pierre Monteux, Joseph Urban.” MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 67050 New production Faust {294} Matinee ed. Metropolitan Opera House: 11/17/1917.
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Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/07/joseph-urban-designed-sets-for-two.html

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Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/07/mar-lago-architect-joseph-urban-also.html

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Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/09/metropolitan-operas-gallery-met-short.html

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Available @ https://twitter.com/MetOpera/status/883014149462216704

The Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera. “#TBT to the 1924-25 production of Les Contes d’Hoffmann. . . . Costumes by Gretel Urban / Courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera Archives.” Facebook. July 6, 2017.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/MetOpera/posts/10159091443910533

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Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=54574

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Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=82700

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Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=235730

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Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=267800

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