AVA's refashioned 'Tales of Hoffmann'

New editions of classic operas can be initially unsettling, as if some dastardly person had rearranged the furniture in your favorite room. But the significant reconstruction in The Tales of Hoffmann that the Academy of Vocal Arts unveiled on Saturday had definite improvements.

Voluminous sketches have surfaced showing what composer Jacques Offenbach was thinking before he died, leaving his greatest opera unfinished. Though the work was patched together posthumously with reasonable skill (but without the composer's genius for cutting and revising during rehearsals), musicologist Michael Kaye has long believed that Offenbach's raw thoughts warrant more investigation.

If there was ever a good place to try this out, it's AVA, where casts are young enough that they don't need to unlearn the standard edition and conductor Christofer Macatsoris is on hand to provide orchestral charisma that underscores Kaye's conviction.

The story of the dissolute poet Hoffmann recounting his failed loves in a series of flashbacks - with the mechanical doll Olympia, the fatally ill singer Antonia, and the cruel Venetian casino denizen Giulietta - was originally conceived with much more music for Nicklausse, the poet's sidekick and muse. Indeed, "The Violin Aria" sung by Nicklausse in the Antonia act is indisputably great music. As sung by the magnetic Chrystal Williams, the tune is deeply poetic and the accompaniment is full of pared-down string counterpoint, taking the opera to a loftier place.

The Giulietta act, the furthest from completion at the composer's death, is now longer, tougher, darker and infinitely better. Hoffmann not only kills his romantic rival Schlemil but also skewers the hunchback Pitichinaccio. The one misstep is Giulietta's new, second aria: It's dramatically redundant and the coloratura writing didn't sit well in Michelle Johnson's voice. The epilogue has extra music: The spoken role of Stella, Hoffmann's final love, now sings - but in a place where loose ends need to be tied up.

Though the production was full of smart directing decisions by David Gately, it had "make do" qualities typical of AVA, with unflattering costumes (Johnson, in particular) and ill-fitting wigs. But the singing was often extraordinary. In the title role, tenor Sean Arnold bailed in mid-performance due to illness but still exhibited a rich, flexible possibly important voice. His replacement, William Davenport, is less further along but is a highly capable singer.

As the doll Olympia, Maria Aleida began her big aria projecting an appropriate robotic artlessness more precisely than anyone I've heard, and went on to interpolate jaw-dropping high notes that I'm told went as far as A-flat (I don't take my pitch-pipe to the opera). In several minor roles, tenor John Viscardi has a voice at least as evolved as Arnold's and truly knows how to hold the stage. Many of the character-tenor roles, however, require the personality of a cabaret performer - the likes of which isn't often found in singers of this age group. So AVA graduate Jeffrey Halili was brought in and nearly stole every scene he was in.

Contact music critic David Patrick Stearns at dstearns@phillynews.com.