(c) Bernd Uhlig Hamlet: Paris Opera
Paris, Opéra Bastille — Main Auditorium
About the Event
Michael Schønwandt conducts a new production by the acclaimed stage director Krzysztof Warlikowski of Ambroise Thomas' interpretation of Shakespeare's masterpiece with Ludovic Tezier in the title role.
In the 1860s, Ambroise Thomas was among those composers who, like Verdi with Macbeth and Gounod with Roméo et Juliette, chose to bring a Shakespeare play to the opera stage. He selected Hamlet, the most famous and also the most philosophical. In the version crafted by librettists Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, the Prince of Denmark loses some of his metaphysical dimension, which is offset by a score full of vivid detail, even featuring two saxophone solos.
While Ambroise Thomas draws on the codes of French grand opera – five acts, a ballet, large forces – he reshapes the form by focussing on the inner drama. Premiered in 1868 at the Paris Opera, the work was a great success. Director Krzysztof Warlikowski offers a psychoanalytic reading of the opera – here performed in the tenor version – in which Hamlet, trapped inside his memories and obsessions, relives the trauma of his father’s murder.
Cast / Production
Creative team
Ambroise Thomas
Music (1811 — 1896)
Jules Barbier
Libretto
Michel Carré
Libretto
Michael Schønwandt
Conductor
Ching‐Lien Wu
Chorus master
Krzysztof Warlikowski
Director
Małgorzata Szczęśniak
Set design and costume design
Felice Ross
Lighting design
Denis Guéguin
Video
Claude Bardouil
Choreography
Sophie Laplane
Choreography
Christian Longchamp
Dramaturgy
Cast
John Osborn
Hamlet
Adela Zaharia
Ophélie
Clémentine Margaine
Gertrude
Jean Teitgen
Claudius
Julien Henric
Laërte
Laurent Naouri
Spectre du roi défunt
Manase Latu
Marcellus
Vartan Gabrielian
Horatio
André Heyboer
Polonius
Morgan‐Andrew King
Premier fossoyeur
Bergsvein Toverud
Deuxième fossoyeur
Address
Opéra Bastille, Place de la Bastille, Paris, France — Google Maps
