Hamlet

Гамлет

When Australian composer Brett Dean’s Hamlet had its world premiere at the Glyndebourne Festival in 2017, The Guardian declared, “New opera doesn’t often get to sound this good … Shakespeare offers a gauntlet to composers that shouldn’t always be picked up, but Dean’s Hamlet rises to the challenge.” Now, this riveting contemporary masterpiece arrives at the Met, with Neil Armfield, who directed the work’s premiere, bringing his acclaimed staging to New York. Many of the original cast members have followed, including tenor Allan Clayton in the title role. Nicholas Carter makes his Met debut conducting a remarkable ensemble, which also features soprano Brenda Rae as Ophelia, mezzo-soprano Dame Sarah Connolly as Gertrude, baritone Rod Gilfry as Claudius, and legendary bass Sir John Tomlinson as the ghost of Hamlet’s father.

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Actors

Hamlet

Allan Clayton

Ophelie

Brenda Rae

Claudius

Rod Gilfry

Gertrude

Sarah Connolly

Laertes

David Butt Philip

Polonius

William Burden

Horatio

Jacques Imbrailo

Ghost

John Tomlinson

Crew

Conductor

Director

Set designer

Costume Designer

Lighting Designer

Summary

Act I

Elsinore, Denmark. King Hamlet has died, mourned by his son, Prince Hamlet of Denmark. The king’s funeral is followed fast by the marriage of his widow, Gertrude, to his brother, Claudius. Hamlet is deeply disturbed by his father’s untimely death and his mother’s “o’er hasty marriage,” a state aggravated by the appearance of King Hamlet’s ghost, informing Hamlet that he was in fact murdered by his brother, now husband to Gertrude and King of Denmark. The dead king asks that his son avenge his death by killing Claudius.

Unsure what to do and behaving erratically, Hamlet rejects his soul mate and lover, Ophelia, and dismisses his former classmates, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, whom Claudius has summoned to Elsinore to help discover the cause of Hamlet’s apparent madness.

A group of players arrives in Elsinore. Hamlet asks them to perform a scene mimicking the murder of King Hamlet by his brother. Claudius reacts violently to the performance, proof in Hamlet’s eyes of his stepfather’s guilt. Called to his mother’s chamber to explain his actions, Hamlet comes upon Claudius deep in prayer, yet finds himself unable to kill him.

Once with his mother, Hamlet hears a muffled cry and, thinking that Claudius is spying on him, runs his sword through a tapestry, killing the unsuspecting Polonius, Ophelia’s father. Hamlet then berates his mother for her shamelessness and debauchery. His father’s ghost appears, reminding Hamlet of his primary mission to avenge his death.

Act II

Laertes, Polonius’s son, returns to Elsinore to avenge his father’s death, threatening Claudius and his kingship. Claudius manages to allay Laertes’s violence by convincing him that Hamlet is the guilty one: Together, Claudius and Laertes conspire to kill him.

Ophelia appears, apparently driven mad by Hamlet’s rejection and the death of her father. This only serves to harden Laertes’s resolve for vengeance, as does, moments later, Ophelia’s death—she has drowned in a nearby stream.

Hamlet and his friend Horatio happen upon Ophelia’s funeral, and upon learning of her death, Hamlet provokes Laertes.

Through the intermediaries Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and according to the plan concocted with Claudius, Laertes challenges Hamlet to a duel. Hamlet accepts the challenge.

Many deaths ensue.

Synopsis by Matthew Jocelyn, reproduced with the permission of Glyndebourne Productions Ltd.