Les Contes d'Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann) is an opera by Jacques Offenbach. The French libretto was written by Jules Barbier, based on three short stories by E. T.A. Hoffmann. E.T. A. Hoffmann himself is a character in the opera just as he often is in his stories. The stories upon which the opera is based are Der Sandmann, Rath Krespel, and Das Verlorene Spiegelbild. It was first performed in Paris, at the Opera-Comique, on February 10, 1881.