Anja Silja

Offenbach intended the four soprano roles be played by the same singer, for Olympia, Giulietta, and Antonia are three facets of Stella, Hoffmann's unreachable love. Similarly, the four villains (Lindorf, Coppélius, Miracle, and Dapertutto) would be performed by the same bass-baritone, because they are all manifestations of evil. While the doubling of the four villains is quite common, most performances of the work use different singers for the loves of Hoffmann because different skills are needed for each role: Olympia requires a skilled-coloratura singer with stratospheric-high notes, Antonia is written for a lyrical voice, and Giulietta is usually performed by a dramatic soprano or a mezzo-soprano. Any performance with all three roles (four if the role of Stella is counted) performed by a single soprano in a performance is considered one of the largest challenges in the lyric coloratura repertoire. Notable sopranos performing all three roles include Karan Armstrong, Vina Bovy, Patrizia Ciofi, Edita Gruberová, Fanny Heldy, Catherine Malfitano, Anja Silja, Beverly Sills, Sonya Yoncheva, Luciana Serra, Ruth Ann Swenson, Carol Vaness, Faith Esham, Ninon Vallin and Virginia Zeani. All four roles were performed by Josephine Barstow, Sumi Jo, Mireille Delunsch, Diana Damrau, Julia Migenes, Elizabeth Futral, Marlis Petersen, Anna Moffo, Georgia Jarman, Elena Moșuc, Joan Sutherland, Melitta Muszely, Olga Peretyatko, Patricia Petibon, Pretty Yende, Jessica Pratt and Nicole Chevalier.

Late in his life, Wieland had a love affair with the much younger Anja Silja, one of the singers he had recruited for Bayreuth.

Nevertheless, Maria Cebotari, Ljuba Welitsch, Birgit Nilsson, Leonie Rysanek, Éva Marton, Radmila Bakočević, Montserrat Caballé, Anja Silja, Phyllis Curtin, Karan Armstrong, Nancy Shade, Dame Gwyneth Jones, Catherine Malfitano, Hildegard Behrens, Maria Ewing, Teresa Stratas (only in a film version, not on stage), Olive Fremstad, Brenda Lewis, and Karita Mattila are among the most memorable who have tackled the role in the last half-century.

The last recording made of the original two-act version—Christoph von Dohnányi conducting the Vienna Philharmonic, with Anja Silja in the title role (Decca/London, recorded 1976 and released 1978)—presented it in this form.

His second wife was the German soprano Anja Silja, with whom he had three children: Julia, Benedikt and Olga.

1985: Anja Silja, Jan Latham-Koenig (Capriccio 1988; recorded in 1985)

Eberhard Waechter (Wozzeck), Anja Silja (Marie), Hermann Winkler (Tambourmajor), Horst Laubenthal (Andres), Heinz Zednik (Hauptmann), Alexander Malta (Doktor), Gertrude Jahn (Margret), Wiener Staatsopernchor, Vienna Philharmonic, conducted by Christoph von Dohnányi, Label: Decca, 1979.

Decca: Anja Silja; Wiener Philharmoniker; Christoph von Dohnányi, conductor (1979)

From 1964 he had a close relationship with Anja Silja, whom he had met in Bayreuth and first conducted in Salome at the Paris Opera.

In 1968 a film of the opera was made for SFB/ORF, in German. Anja Silja and Eberhard Wächter portrayed the young couple. It was conducted by Wolfgang Rennert, and the production was directed by Otto Schenk