Performed in French with English surtitles, the music can be tricky, particularly for college students. So Buck Ross, the director of Moores Opera Center, decided to exploit his “bumper crop of tenors” and switch out the leads not between shows but between acts. “They’ll be dressed exactly the same all the way through,” Ross added. “Thematically it works really well, too, because we’re seeing Hoffman at different stages in his life, from innocent to one that’s frankly rather drunk and depraved at the end.” The point of a UH college production, unlike professional operas, is to give as many students a chance to shine as possible, Ross said. “The show is a terrific showcase for virtually every singer we’ve got.” So in addition to all the Hoffmans, there’s a huge cast, Ross said. “We’ve probably got 80 singers onstage. It’s quite an extravaganza.”
Adding in steampunk elements was a natural, Ross said. The piece was written in 1881, the show Offenbach did right before that was an adaptation of Jules Verne’s A Voyage to the Moon. “Jules Verne is sort of cited as a foundation of the steampunk movement,” Ross said. Besides the mechanized doll, “the show is framed in a tavern. We’ve made it into a giant brewery so we have lots of big tanks and steam and bubblers going all throughout to create that kind of atmosphere.” The show is done in three parts with two intermissions and clocks in at about three hours.
7:30 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Monday; and 2:30 p.m. Sunday. The University of Houston’s Moores Opera House (Entrance 16 off Cullen Boulevard). For information, call 713‑743‑3313 or visit uh.edu. $12 to $20.
Fri., Oct. 24, 7:30 p.m.; Sat., Oct. 25, 7:30 p.m.; Sun., Oct. 26, 2:30 p.m.; Mon., Oct. 27, 7:30 p.m., 2014