In his ‘fantastical opera’, the composer Jacques Offenbach makes the writer E.T.A. Hoffmann his protagonist. The story begins with Hoffmann in a lovesick depression about the mercurial Stella, with whom he is infatuated. The poet’s heartache sets him off on a flight of imagination in which he envisions Stella in three tales, with a very different persona in each. When they embark on this strange and surreal adventure, the children in the opera camp will not only encounter the bewitching doll Olympia, the unhappy singer Antonia and the irresistible Giulietta, but also the mad physicist Spalanzani, the devious Dr Miracle and the diabolical Dapertutto, who is determined to steal Hoffmann’s soul. Through their playing and singing of Offenbach’s lively music, they will mount a spirited staging of this wildly kaleidoscopic opera.