I have the double-CD four times already heard - and I can still hardly remember what it was in the story. But that does not matter because Hoffmann wants me recite no complex plot, he will rather convey moods. And that works fine. Underlaid by elegiac music he works only with images and feelings, hardly with content. And alone listen his voice for so long is a delight.
Sophisticated reading in between interspersed with Hoffmann-songs.