Hoffmann. The Elixir of Shadows

On January 24, 2026, storyteller, composer, and artist Ernst Theodor Hoffmann turned 250 years old. On this day, a performance of "The Elixir of Shadows," a homage to the great Romantic, was performed in his hometown of Kaliningrad (Königsberg) at the Cathedral on Immanuel Kant Island.

Hoffmann was born in Königsberg. As a student at the Albertina, he learned to play Johann Mosengel's instrument under the organist Christian Podbielski. After graduating from the Albertina as an external student, he wrote his first novels. He began studying painting with the renowned artist Johann Gottlieb Zemann. Here, Hoffmann developed a worldview that would permeate everything he would ever create, and Königsberg would become the main setting for his books.

The play "The Elixir of Shadows" centers on Hoffmann's personal relationships, having already left Königsberg, including his first passionate love affair with Dora Hatt.

Five years later, the storyteller married Michalina Rorer-Trzczyńska, who would remain with him until the end, helping him write his dictated notes even in the middle of the night. Nine years later, she would fall in love again, with her student, Yulia Mark. The events that unfolded between Yulia, Michalina, and Hoffmann are recounted in letters preserved for posterity. Playwright and director Dmitry Minchenko based his play on these letters, "a correspondence for three voices and organ." His fairy tales came to life on stage, accompanied by musical works by both Hoffmann himself (excerpts from the opera "Undine," sonatas, and masses) and composers who created their own masterpieces based on the writer's literary work (P.I. Tchaikovsky's ballet "The Nutcracker," J. Offenbach's opera "The Tales of Hoffmann").

PERFORMERS:

Dmitry Minchenok - Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann;

Evdokia Germanovna - Mikhalina Hoffmann;

Elena Terentyeva - Yulia Mark;

Andrey Stepanenko - bandoneon;

Alexandra Charnomskaya - cello;

Ksenia Avramenko - flute;

Yevgeny Avramenko - organ.

Kaliningrad Cathedral, Kaliningrad, January 24, 2026