Three Hamlet s

Hamlet: Thomas Hampson	Horatio: François Le Roux
Ophélie: June Anderson	Polonius: Michel Trempont
Claudius: Samuel Ramey	Grave diggers: Thierry Félix, Jean-Pierre Furlan
Laërte: Gregory Kunde	London Philharmonic
Gertrude: Denyce Graves	Ambrosian Opera Chorus
Ghost: Jean-Philippe Courtis	Antonio de Almeida, conductor
Marcellus: Gérard Garino	EMI cdcc 7 54820 2 (3 CDs)
Hamlet: Sherrill Milnes	Horatio: Philip Gelling
Ophélie: Joan Sutherland	Polonius: Arwel Huw Morgan
Claudius: James Morris	Grave diggers: Peyo Garazzi, Joseph Rouleau
Laërte: Gösta Winbergh	Orchestra and Chorus of Welsh National Opera
Gertrude: Barbara Conrad	Richard Bonynge, conductor
Ghost: John Tomlinson	Decca (distributed by Universal) 433 857-2
Marcellus: Keith Lewis	(3 CDs)
Hamlet: Bo Skovhus	Polonius: Georg Lehner
Ophélie: Alexandrina Pendatchanska	Grave diggers: Andreas Kohn, Helmut
Claudius: Kurt Rydl	Wildhabern
Laërte: Jorge Lopez-Yanez	Symphony Orchestra and Chorus of the O. R. F.
Gertrude: Viorica Cortez	Arnold Schönberg-Chor
Ghost: Goran Simic	Reynald Giovaninetti, conductor
Marcellus: Andreas Kohn	Serenissima c 360.147-49 (3 CDs)
Horatio: Goran Simic

Ambroise Thomas's Hamlet was well received at its premiere at the Paris Opéra on 9 March 1868. Part of the enthusiasm was occasioned by the singers. The title role was taken by Jean-Baptiste Faure, who had recently created the roles of Nélusko in L'Africaine (1865) and Posa in Don Carlos (1867) at the Opéra, and something of his impact in the part is suggested by Edouard Manet's 1877 painting of him as Hamlet. The twenty-four-year-old Christine Nilsson achieved stardom as Ophélie. The score, too, was much praised. Reviewing the premiere in the Journal des Débats, Ernest Reyer greeted the new opera "with joy," calling it "worthy of all the splendor and magnificence of ... our first lyric stage." In particular, he praised the second scene of the opera, in which the ghost of Hamlet's father appears on the ramparts of the castle, and the dramatic confrontation between Hamlet and his mother at the end of act 3. In the former, Reyer found "the culminating point of the score, the strength of the master, the force and the versatility of his talent and his genius." ¹

Writing in the Revue et Gazette Musicale de Paris, Paul Bernard was also enthusiastic about the second tableau ("it is a grand page; the shade of Gluck could well have appeared there"), and he also singled out the scene in which the mad Ophélie distributes her flowers: "Every detail deserves mention in this long mad-scene. Recitatives are to be found there of wonderful sweetness. The sung waltz is a jewel; the Swedish melody ["Pâle et blonde"] astonishes and captivates; lastly the seraphic songs which seemingly emerge from the lake are so misty, so diaphanous, that one can readily believe, like the blonde Ophélie, that one no longer belongs to the earth." ²

Hamlet entered the international repertory rapidly, reaching Leipzig, London, Budapest, Brussels, Prague, New York, St. Petersburg, Berlin, and Vienna within five years of the premiere. By that time, the opera had received its hundredth performance in Paris, where it would be performed three hundred times by June 1899. However, like many other French grands opéras, it soon disappeared just as rapidly from international stages, being seldom performed outside French-speaking countries after World War I and, shortly after that, seldom performed even there. Its memory was kept alive by two numbers heard in concert and on recordings—an uncharacteristically extroverted drinking song for the melancholy hero ("O vin, dissipe la tristesse") and Ophélie's mad scene, shorn of the atmospheric closing so admired by Bernard.

Among the factors hampering revival, particularly in English-speaking countries, is the treatment of Shakespeare's tragedy. Jules Barbier and Michel Carré based their libretto on an 1847 version of the play by Alexandre Dumas and Paul Meurice. At the end of this rendering, Hamlet falls on Ophelia's coffin in despair but, being reminded by the...