THOMAS : HAMLET

New York Metropolitan Opera Broadcast
Radio New Zealand Concert network
Sunday 27th of November 2016 at 6 - 9 pm
Sunday 18th of April 2010 at 3.03 -7.00 pm


INTRODUCTION
ANALYSIS
LIBRETTO
2016
THOMAS: Hamlet
A dramatic opera in five acts
Claudius, King
of Denmark.................. Paul Whelan
Queen Gertrude........... Katarina Karnéus
Hamlet......................... Thomas Oliemans
Polonius....................... Peter Loguin
Ophelia........................ Ditte Højgaard Andersen
Laertes......................... Joachim Bäckström
Horatio......................... Anton Ljungqvist
Marcellus..................... Henrik Andersson
The Ghost.................... Björn Larsson
First Gravedigger......... Anton Ljungqvist
Second Gravedigger.... Ingemar Andersson
Gothenburg Opera Chorus & Extra Chorus, Gothenburg Orchestra/Henrik Schaefer 2010
PREVIEW
REVIEW 
REVIEW
REVIEW
 
THOMAS: Hamlet, an opera in five acts (1868)
Hamlet.......................... Simon Keenlyside
Ophelia......................... Marlis Petersen
Gertrude....................... Jennifer Larmore
Laertes.......................... Toby Spence
Claudius........................ James Morris
Ghost............................ David Pittsinger
Marcellus...................... Matthew Plenk
Horatio......................... Liam Bonner
Polonius........................ Maxim Mikhailov
First gravedigger............ Richard Bernstein
Second gravedigger....... Mark Schowalter
Metropolitan Opera Chorus & Orch/Louis Langrée

Hamlet, the last opera of Ambroise Thomas,  follows the story of Shakespeare’s great tragedy fairly closely: 'To be or not to be' is there, the ghost walks, and the gravediggers do their work, but Rosencrantz and Guildenstern never appear, and  Hamlet is still standing at the end; but in an alternative version of the final scene (composed for the Covent Garden opera house) Hamlet kneels by Ophelia's body, then kills Claudius, and finally stabs himself .

Ambroise Thomas (1811-1896), Hamlet, opera in 5 acts (libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, after Shakespeare). It is said to be closer to Shakespeare’s original play than Gounod’s Faust is to Goethe’s drama.

Hamlet is one of William Shakespeare’s most stunning tragedies, and we might well wonder whether it has been turned into a comical operetta, particularly when we hear the name Hamlet sounding (in French pronunciation)  like omelette (Ham and poulet eggs, of course). One criticism of this version is that there are too many survivors! There’s something rotten in the state of Denmark, and we suspect the little Ham has gone off.

So, is it still a tragedy after it has passed through the hands of Barbier (who gave it a *trim), Carré (who compressed and *squared it, not to say made a square meal of it), and Thomas (who made some *doubtful additions to it, such as a saxophone)?  French operas, like Hoffmann (composed by a German, Offenbach) and Camiille (alias La Traviata, the work of an Italian greengrocer, Verdi) must include a drinking song, and Hamlet does the honours when his players arrive, for the play within the play.

Hamlet was first performed in 1868 at the Paris Grand Opéra (where the rule was: five acts and a ballet), not at the Opéra Comique (where spoken dialogue was  included). Accordingly, Hamlet will have to sing not say his soliloquy (Etre ou ne pas être, that is, Two bee oar knot too bee, that is the conundrum). We will also expect to see a ballet in the second act, but Thomas got away with omitting it, letting Hamlet’s play fill the bill. (You don’t need to be reminded that they punished Wagner in 1861 for putting his Venusberg ballet in the first act of Tannhäuser.) Never mind, there are some jolly dances, and not just the merry dance Hamlet leads his uncle in. Also, with Ophelia in the story we will be treated to an operatic “mad scene”.
2010
Hamlet’s beloved, Ophélie, is usually the French soprano Natalie Dessay (born 1965, mother of two); but on this occasion she was malade, and Marlis Petersen took her place.  Another soprano who has sung this role is Joan Sutherland, who issued an early recording of the “mad scene”, and appears in the Decca recording of the opera, with the Welsh National Opera conducted by Richard Bonynge (a relative of hers, but only by marriage). Both Joan and Natalie have needed operations to remove nodes/ nodules  on their vocal “instrument”.  So, Natalie has stopped singing Mozart’s Queen of the Night (even though her voice still has clarity and agility); and Joan gave up Wagner; no more heroic tenor parts for her with top C’s, but Italian and French heroines singing top E’s above top C.

Natalie Dessay made her  Covent Garden debut in 2003, as Ophelia. This is our cue to note that Thomas composed a special ending for his Hamlet when it was performed in London in 1870, in Italian (?!).    On the video recording I have, Thomas’ Ham-let is sung by Thomas Ham-pson (very appropriate). Hampson is a baritone, not a tenor (as we might expect for this part), nor a counter-tenor (to make him sound like the youth that Hamlet is). Hamlet’s uncle Claudius (the villainous usurper) is a bass, and here it is James Morris (the Metropera Wotan), last seen with Placido in Simon Boccanegra. The Ghost is also a bass.

In the first two acts we meet Prince Hamlet's mother, his father's ghost, his new step-father-uncle, and dear sweet hapless Ophelia. And we expectantly await the Prince of Denmark's soliloquy air "on a B-string" (not a bee-sting).  Hamlet has a bee in his bonnet (even 2 bees, or maybe not 2 bees). He eats his ham with jam and honey, he has done so all his life; it makes the ham  taste damned funny, but it keeps him from using his knife, for murderous ends and unkind cuts.

Will they ham it up in New York and give us a happy ending? A fine French fin, or the alternative English version in Italian, which I mentioned earlier? The answer lurks in the preview and the reviews that are offered above.