Hamlet

Another of the Metropolitan Opera’s HD Simulcasts. I haven’t seen this one before, haven’t even heard of it before. It’s from 1868, by Ambroise Thomas. A French opera. I was not expecting much. I was very surprised.

It started slow and deliberate. Simon Keenlyside played Hamlet, and he’s got an amazing baritone voice, but even more, he acted as he sung. Physically he looks like Daniel Craig. Most of the males in the opera were baritones or basses. Hamlet’s father had an incredible voice. Hamlet’s uncle Claudius (James Morris), who we saw several weeks in Simon Boccanegra, also has a great bass voice.

So it started slow, and slowly built up steam. Hamlet hired the mummers to stage the play within a play, and then the opera took off. The mummers acting out the death of Hamlet’s father was gripping enough, but when Hamlet leapt on the banquet table and started pouring blood-wine on himself and draping himself in the bloody tablecloth, it was riveting. I was breathless with shock for most of that scene. It’s the most intense scene of any opera I have ever seen.

After intermission, the opera continued without losing steam. Hamlet rejects Ophelia and then fights with his mother. Hamlet’s fight with his mother Gertrude (Jennifer Larmore) was gripping. The acting between the two principals was extraordinary. I’ve never seen anything like it before.

Ophelia gets upset, goes mad and lengthily kills herself. I don’t like the mad scene in Lucia di Lammermoor, and I was expecting to dislike this one too. Unfortunately, it was realistic and very disturbing. When Ophelia (Marlis Peterson) started cutting herself and the blood starting flowing, I was jolted. Harrowing is a good word for the mad scene in this production of Hamlet.

This scene was followed by an attempt to lighten the mood with the gravediggers, and I think the mood did not need lightening. It started grim, it got grimmer and it got really grim at the end. It did not need any attempts at lightening.

The crowd scenes going to the feast, and the gravediggers, showed the librettist had a fixation on wine. Wine is the answer to everything. Life is short and brutal, so drink wine and have some fun before you die. Bit of a fixation there, although I do think wine is the answer to a lot of problems.

The opera ended with death all round. Hamlet kills Ophelia’s brother and gets mortally wounded. Hamlet tosses Ophelia around before she can be buried. Hamlet’s father arrives again and reminds Hamlet that there’s more killing to do. Hamlet kills his uncle Claudius and then dies himself. Wow. The singing was powerful, the acting was superb, the opera was so intense. If this comes out on DVD, I will buy it. I want to see some scenes again. I might have to go to the encore performance at Lynnhaven.

The Met announced the operas in the next season. Eleven operas, and we have seen none of them. I am so happy the Met is doing this. If they are of the same quality as Hamlet, I will be very happy. And we get to see the first two operas in the Ring Cycle – Rheingold and Valkyrie.