Kennet Opera are returning to Shaw House Great Hall from February 2 to 4, with Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffmann. It’s probably the first time this “serious, symbolist, death- and devil-haunted work” has come Newbury’s way. If that sounds forbidding the opera also has many fantastic, ludicrous and just plain funny moments — as comes through in the rehearsal photos from Brimpton village hall last week. After a string of comedy triumphs, Jacques Offenbach’s last work was this strange opera fantastique from 1881, based on the writings of the German romantic poet ETA Hoffmann and telling the story of…