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Les contes d'Hoffmann, Giulietta act
Credit: Pierre-Auguste Lamy (?), restored by Adam CuerdenIllustration to Jacques Offenbach's last composition Les contes d'Hoffmann, showing the Giulietta act, set in Venice. In this act, Hoffmann falls in love with the courtesan Giulietta and thinks she returns his affections. Giulietta is not in love with Hoffmann but only seducing him under the orders of Captain Dapertutto, who has promised to give her a diamond if she steals Hoffmann's reflection from a mirror. The jealous Schlemil, a previous victim of Giulietta and Dapertutto (he gave Giulietta his shadow), challenges the poet to a duel, but is killed. Nicklausse wants to take Hoffmann away from Venice and goes looking for horses. Meanwhile, Hoffmann meets Giulietta and cannot resist her, giving her his reflection, only to be abandoned by the courtesan, to Dapertutto's great pleasure. Hoffmann tells Dapertutto that his friend Nicklausse will come and save him. Dapertutto prepares a poison to get rid of Nicklausse, but Giulietta drinks it by mistake and drops dead in the poet's arms.