Last night we watched a 1971 BBC broadcast of Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann, which featured Michel Molese as Hoffmann and Elizabeth Harwood as all four ladies in his life and tales. Like the Michael Powell film, the score was heavily cut, and the recitatives were replaced by spoken dialogue, which may have represented Offenbach's first thoughts on the work. The prduction was excellent, but the DVD was taken from something in terrible condition, and much of the Venice act was a mess.