_-_Les_contes_d%27Hoffmann_by_Jacques_Offenbach,_prologue.jpg)
Credit: Pierre-Auguste Lamy (?), restored by Adam Cuerden
Illustration to Jacques Offenbach's last composition Les contes d'Hoffmann, showing the prologue. Based on the stories of E. T. A. Hoffmann, it features three doomed romances, with his friend Nicklausse – actually Hoffmann's muse in disguise – following him around, attempting to protect him, even as tragedies befall all around him. However, in the end he explains the three women he described are actually elements of his fourth love, whom he then rejects, and the muse reveals herself and embraces him.