A Revelatory Interpretation | Ambroise Thomas - Hamlet

two for one | Ambroise Thomas - Hamlet - Barcelona Opera

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	• Ambroise Thomas - Hamlet - Barcelona Opera EMI Classics, 2004 average customer review:based on 15 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Interesting Take on "Hamlet"

I love the play "Hamlet" and I love opera. There is much good to say about this production. Visually it is stunning and original. Sets are minimal, but perfect and varied. The costumes are brilliantly conceived. The lighting puts it all together and varies the pallet when needed.

The acting is good not great. Keenlyside is one note as are his arias. I've read nothing but raves for Natalie Dessay, but I find her a bit too mousy with a self-obsessed delivery. She thinks she is the only one onstage. The Gertrude was magnificent, as was the Ghost of Hamlet's Father. Claudius was a little to commonplace for me--certainly not the monster he should be.

Thomas' opera is uneven. He does not know how to write for men. However, his work for Ophelia and Gertrude is remarkable. But this is Hamlet's play and opera. No wonder all the reviewers are so ga-ga over Dessay. I do think they have overlooked Gertrude though. As far as I'm concerned, when she was onstage, no one could top her.

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A Revelatory Interpretation

Most opera fans think of Thomas's Hamlet as an uninspired, underwritten opera with one superb aria for Ophélie that deserves a place on a French Arias disc, but nowhere else, especially not in a full production, which would be boring and pointless. I used to think the same myself until I watched this DVD, and understood almost at once that Thomas's spare, highly disciplined music is meant above all to illuminate the text. In a long commentary on this work, written around the time of the Met production, Anthony Tommasini expresses the same understanding.

Perhaps it would work with no other artist than Simon Keenlyside, whose Hamlet is an uncanny incarnation of Shakespeare's hero, breathtaking in its power to convey so many shades of Hamlet's conflicted personality. I cannot praise it enough. Dessay is similarly gifted, her initial exchange with Hamlet being especially remarkable, with subtle changes in vocal and facial expression that perfectly express her love for Hamlet and her struggles to understand him. She sings her famous aria with great nuance. Two superb artists at the peak of commitment and interpretive power.

The production itself is less remarkable, though for the most part acceptable as background. Exceptions are the half-bald Gertrude and the grotesque lump of toweling that Dessay must hitch to her waist at a certain point. I also think I've seen enough operatic sofas for a lifetime. But you may find that you can come to ignore these idiocies and comprehend at the level of the heart as well as the head, that, at least here, Thomas was a superb composer in the French tradition that gave us Debussy and Poulenc: the focus is on the text, the music illuminates it, great singing actors interpret it, and you've got a Hamlet that will endure, no matter how infrequently produced. This is art and it does what art is meant to do: move the emotions and effect a heightened sense of tragic meaning and, perhaps, catharsis. I've never watched a DVD that moved me so much and simply would not let me look away.

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two for one

In addition to viewing the present disc several times, I have also had the oppotunity to view the Live from the Met Simulcast of Hamlet from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera of New York on March 27, 2010. This allowed us to see the Met's staging in 2010 of the same production of the opera as presented at the Gran Theatre del Liceu Barcelona in October 2003 and recorded on this DVD disc. Much of the feeling for the drama was the same as was the Hamlet of Simon Keenlyside. Several of the other cast members were different and often changed the impact of the presentation.
Simon Keenlyside is a Shakespearian Hamlet. The intensity of his acting together with his superb French diction and singing carry this opera to heights only a few dramatic actors can achieve for the play. Everything moves as he moves and you know as Shakespear knew that the end was inevitable. This is why in the Met broadcast he had to die before the curtain fell as occurs in the play rather than the composers' ending of the crowd hailing Hamlet as now king. (In the Liceu presentation on this disc it is unclear what will happen but he seems alive as the curtain falls).
The Ophelie was different in the two presentations and made a great difference. In the Met Simulcast Natalie Dessay was scheduled to play opposite Keenlyside, but became indisposed shortly before opening night. In her place was Marlis Petersen who was to appear later in the season as the Met's Lulu. Ms Petersen certainly had no time to develope the role (although she had sung it before)so she didn't quite fit in with the rest of the cast. She did a commendable job and certainly has the technique and art the role requires. She has a somewhat knifelike edge to her voice betraying an inner strength that will better suit Lulu than Ophelie. But to really appreciate the drama and pathos of this innocent maiden shattered completely by the fortunes of life listen to Ms Dessay in this recroding. Her redition would bring tears to stone. It is truly one of the great moments in Opera, it is so utterly beautiful.
On the plus side for the Met presentation was the Gertrude of Jennifer Larmore. It is the mother-son interaction of the "closet" scene that is pivotal to the drama. Her second act arioso "Dans son regard plus sombre" proved what a great singing actress she is. That face can convey terror, fear and malice in equal measure as her voice projects it. The Gertrude of Uria-Monzon in this recording is adequate but restrained.
Both the Met and the Liceu were excellent presentations of this excellent production. It shows, as in Tales of Hoffmann, that a less than stellar opera can shine if great talent is combined with inspired production and direction.

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Does opera get any better than this?

Does opera get any better than this? Mix high drama, love, murder, vengeance, forgiveness, a ghost and a mad scene with exquisitely beautiful music and all-round great performances and you have a sure winner!

Ambrose Thomas's music is beautifully played under the commanding baton of Bertrand de Billy. Simon Keenlyside uses his superb acting skills and beautiful baritone voice to create a truly tragic Hamlet. Natalie Dessay shines throughout the opera and her mad scene is haunting and sheer brilliance at the same time. The supporting cast does a marvelous job both in terms of their music and acting.

I simply cannot find any fault with this performance and enjoyed every last second!

If you want Shakesperean Hamlet go see the play. If you want outstanding and most enjoyable opera, get this DVD. Now!

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This romantic and rarely performed opera by Ambroise Thomas is now available on DVD in a new production from the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona. Starring Natalie Dessay and Simon Keenlyside, this Hamlet production is guaranteed to become the benchmark for all other Hamlets to come on DVD. Dessay creates a monumental performance of Ophelie, culminating in one of the most gripping Mad Scenes of all time ("Partagez-vous mes fleurs?et maintenant ecoutez ma chanson?").

reviews: page 1, 2, 3

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