Admin

Organization

Singer

Baritone

Stéphane Degout

Hamlet

Soprano

Sabine Devieilhe

Ophelia

Bass

Laurent Alvaro

King Claudius

Mezzo-soprano

Sylvie Brunet-Grupposo

Queen Gertrude

Tenor

Julien Behr

Laertes

Jérôme Varnier

Ghost of the late King Hamlet

Kévin Amiel

Marcellus

Yoann Dubruque

Horatio

Nicolas Legoux

Polonius

Conductor

Louis Langrée

Stage director

Cyril Teste

Set designer

Ramy Fischler

Costume designer

Isabelle Deffin

Video designer

Mehdi Toutain-Lopez

Nicolas Dorémus

Lighting designer

Julien Boizard

Chorus master

Joël Suhubiette

Julien Masmondet

Dramaturge

Leila Adham

Marine Thoreau La Salle

Opéra Royal de Wallonie - Liège

Others

Chœur de chambre Les Éléments

Orchestra

Orchestre des Champs-Elysées

Opéra Comique

French

Paris

France

Opéra-Comique

Salle Bizet

Hamlet by A.Thomas, from Opéra Comique, 2018. Directed by Cyril Teste, conductor Louis Langrée, starring Sabine Devieilhe, Julien Behr, Kevin Amiel, Stéphane Degout, Yoann Dubruque, Laurent Alvaro, Sylvie Brunet-Grupposo, Jérôme Varnier. Performed in French and subtitled in English, German, French, Korean and Chinese.

Hamlet refuses to attend the coronation of his uncle Claudius who has married his recently widowed mother the queen. The late King Hamlet already seems to be forgotten in Elsinore, which smarts young Hamlet even more than his being kept away from the throne. The apparition of his late father on the ramparts will precipitate him into a destructive quest for truth. From the adaptation of Shakespeare’s version by Dumas, Barbier and Carré wrote a romantic and spectacular libretto in which Ophelia shines with a peculiar radiance. With its virtuosic arias, arresting ensembles and vivid orchestra – and the appearance of the saxophone – Ambroise Thomas composed one of the finest scores of the French repertoire. Louis Langrée is one of the great promoters of Hamlet, Stéphane Degout one of its most resonant incarnations. Sabine Devieilhe makes her debut in the extraordinary role of Ophelia and Cyril Teste stages and puts into perspective this metaphor for the power of drama.

IN THE PROGRAM
Hamlet
Opera in five acts by Ambroise Thomas (1811 - 1896)
Libretto by Michel Carré and Jules Barbier after William Shakespeare
Premiere in Paris, Opéra, March 9, 1868

Recording: December 21, 2018 - Opéra Comique | Paris
Directed by: François Roussillon
Duration: 02:50

“To be, or not to be..." You probably know the question, but perhaps not Cyril Teste's answer! A stage director famed for his fascinating fusion of theater and film, he stages the opera Hamlet for the first time in this production starring a brilliant group of soloists led by Stéphane Degout, Sabine Devieilhe, Laurent Alvaro, and Sylvie Brunet-Grupposo.

A seminal work of the French 19th-century repertoire premiered in 1868, Ambroise Thomas's Hamlet was a fixture of the Paris opera scene until the second half of the 20th century when it fell out of favor—an injustice that is happily being righted with this innovative and first-rate staging by Cyril Teste.

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