Customer Reviews

Ambroise Thomas - Hamlet - Barcelona Opera

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

For sometime I've been hearing a lot about Natalie Dessay; however, only owning a few audio recordings with her, I really didn't see what all the fuss was about. After viewing/hearing this performance of Thomas' Hamlet, I see why she is considered one of opera's brightest stars. Her performance as Ophelie is sublime. This role is usually a mere display of coloratura excesses. With Dessay it turns into far more than high notes and vocal runs-she not only sings the role magnificently, she sings it with great dramatic intensity (something that is very rare with the so-called coloratura soprano). I guess she would be called a great "singing actress" in the very best sense of the phrase. Her performance really "moved" me. (The audience that this performance was taped in front of was also impressed with her to a point that they were in a state of delirium from her first aria and by the "Mad Scene" they too had also gone completely "mad".) Simon Kennlyside also gives a riveting performance.
Simon's voice, at this point in his career, might be a size too small for Hamlet; however, that is soon forgotten because of the dramatic intensity he brings to the role. He sings poor depressed Hamlet wonderfully. The "confrontation scene" with Uria-monzon (as his mother) is fantastic! I'm sure his voice will "grow" into the role.
This production does NOT try to recreate the era; however, it is beautiful to observe-wonderful contrasting colors on a rather bare stage allowing the singers to display their dramatic qualities to the fullest-no this is not "the Bard" but it IS opera at its most exciting!

This video of Hamlet by Ambroise Thomas is simply brilliant.

Baritone Simon Keenlyside as Hamlet is astonishing. He is a great actor, especially for a singer, and he adapts his light baritone to the dramatic requirements of the opera with intelligence and total conviction. He has a beautiful instrument and uses it well, with lovely shading alongside outbursts of dramatic intensity.

This was the first time I have seen soprano Natalie Dessay in action, although I have heard her several times on disk. She walked through Ophelia's mad scene as if it were a vocal stroll in the park, with shattering results. It was the most harrowing operatic mad scene I have ever seen.

The opera itself, while certainly interesting, is not the best work out there. The libretto, adapted from Shakespeare by Barbier and Carre to the tastes of Paris Opera audiences in 1868, takes some liberties with the Shakespeare plot in the process of getting pared down to a three hour, five act opera, but there is nothing significant enough to worry about. This is, after all, a French Grand Opera and not the Royal Shakespeare Company.

The performance was recorded live at the Gran Theatre del Liceu in Barcelona in October 2003. The resonant ambience of the theater is clearly recorded on this video and adds a sense of live performance to the stereo sound, although from time to time the mikeing on the singers could have been a bit more forward. The pre-performance views of the recently restored Liceu are beautiful, and the audience during the live taping was as enthralled with the proceedings as I was.

The production by Christian Fenouillat, which features curved walls that are starkly lit with strong blues, reds and yellows to express mood and which move around to redefine space, may not be the most visually attractive, but it shows up well on the TV screen as a backdrop to the close ups of the singers. This production has apparently made the rounds in Europe, including London and Dusseldorf, before coming to Barcelona, and is hereby recorded for posterity.

All in all, this recording is about as definitive a performance of Hamlet as there is likely to be on DVD. It is worth watching just for Keenlyside and Dessay.

Ambroise Thomas's Hamlet is one of those operas where some famous excerpts have survived as staples of the concert/recital circuit -- namely, Ophelia's "Mad Scene" and Hamlet's Drinking Song. The full opera was rarely staged.
This DVD, filmed in 2003 from the Barcelona Liceu, gives us a hint about why this opera remains a curiosity. It is, first of all, very long (about three hours), and the music is somewhat uneven. "O vin, dissipe la tristesse" and the Mad Scene are justly famous, but Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquoy becomes a rather meandering aria. The opera is an odd mix of ottocento and French grand opera, and much of the sinister humor of the play is gone. Although it's nice to hear works complete I thought this is one opera that could have benefited from some judicious cutting, as it is a VERY long opera.
"Hamlet" is well worth getting for lovers of splendid vocalism. The supporting cast is uniformly fine. But Simon Keenlyside and Natalie Dessay (Hamlet and Ophelie) are Stars-with-a-capitol-S.
Natalie Dessay started her career as a specialist of high-flying coloratura roles. She then had a vocal crisis, but her career seems to be back on track. Although she no longer sprinkles her performances with high F's and G's, her voice has acquired richness and dramatic coloring over the years, and her Mad Scene can hold its own against any "gold standard" recording, such as Nellie Melba's, or Eide Norena's. Her voice is not to everyone's taste -- it has a Gallic edge, and a touch of iciness. It's more piercing than large. But she's a wonderful, committed actress, and a coloratura soprano who can make even the most mechanical runs sound edge-of-your-seat exciting. Hers is an Ophelia to treasure.
Simon Keenlyside besides being great eye candy has a beautiful, smooth, marvelously produced baritone voice. He sings with exquisite legato, never resorting to barking even in the most dramatic moments. Most of all, his performance is very true to Shakespeare -- he makes Hamlet brooding, righteous, sensitive, cruel, unbalanced, yet calculating.
The production, although fairly inoffensive, unfortunately makes this sometimes portentious, overly gloomy opera seem even more portentious and gloomy. The lighting is unremittingly dark, the staging is threadbare (mostly a series of moving walls), the costumes nondescript (Simon Keenlyside broods in an overcoat and Stanley Kowalski-like t-shirt, the women wear long dresses, the rest of the costumes are a mix of the antique and modern.)
So I give four stars for the splendid singing, but this opera is, let's face it, not a masterpiece, and the production is somewhat disappointing.

This is really a remarkable recording and mostly owing to breathtaking Ophelia sung by french soprano Natalia Dessay. I had a change to see and hear her live in a operatic recital and she is truly the best coloratura and classical bel canto soprano of our time. She also proves this in the role of Ophelia. The most celebrated mad scene is a real treasure and it really displalys the mastership of Natalia. Her unique sharp and tender voice at the same time combined with the ability to perform all the nuances of mad mind make this scene the highlight of the recording. Bravo Natalia

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.

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.

This is an amazing production and one can appreciate the incredible talent and the great loss of Natalie Dessay to the world of music. Her ability to continiue to sing and act in the "mad scene" with such amazing focus is truly remarkable. I am very pleased to have been able to purchase this DVD. I can only hope that she will recover and be able to continue to perform. The entire production was riveting and the music reamarkabley haunting.

As the first reviewer points out, didn't know what all the fuss was about Natalie Dessay from her recordings... UNTIL I saw her live in LUCIA ... I was convinced. She "is" a singing actress, she must be seen and heard.. The mad scene alone is worth the purchase - I'm so pleased to see someone who sings for a reason, not for beauty alone.. She's the real thing, and there's few of them left! A shame she became ill and didn't get the video of "LUCIE" with Alagna.. hopefully there's more to come. BRAVA!

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.

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!