New 'Hoffmann' set gets a Hollywood touch

Posted August 6, 2007

The Blankenship Company is currently constructing the set at its Richmond-based studio for an all-new production of Jacques Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann, which opens our 2007-2008 season and also includes new costumes and lighting designs.

Richard Blankenship in front of what will eventually be the “music box," as shown in the blueprint, which will be featured in one of the famous scenes from Tales of Hoffmann.

Designed by Scenic Designer Erhard Rom, the new Tales of Hoffmann set will give audiences a taste of Nuremburg, Munich and Venice during its performances. Erhard's most recent collaboration with The Blankenship Company for last year's Virginia Opera premiere of Carlisle Floyd's "Susannah" resulted in scenery hailed by critics as "stunning" and "clever."

Richard has also been the construction coordinator for numerous major film and television productions, including most recently:

• "John Adams" (2008 – HBO mini-series)
• "The New World" (2005)
• "War of the Worlds" (2005)
• "Mickey" (2004)
• "Iron Jawed Angels" (2004 – HBO original movie)
• "Hearts in Atlantis" (2001)
• "Hannibal" (2001)

Other sets built for us by The Blankenship Company, which you may remember, include:

• "Tristan & Isolde" (2005 - Virginia premiere)
• "Fidelio" (2004)
• "Die Fledermaus" (2003)
• "Andrea Chénier" (2003 - Virginia premiere)

Mike Boone works on the gondola that is designed to hold up to four performers as it glides across the stage during another famous scene, while Bonnie Green meticulously sculpts an intricate design into the decorative trim for the "music box."

Following Tales of Hoffmann, in which a poet tells the stories of his three greatest loves and how they ended miserably due to the meddling incarnations of a supernatural villain, our blockbuster season also includes thrilling performances of Gilbert & Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance; Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, the company's first Russian opera, which also comes with a new set; and Gaetano Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor.

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