Hamlet is a grand opera in five acts of 1868 by the French composer Ambroise Thomas, with a libretto by Michel Carré and Jules Barbier based on a French adaptation by Alexandre Dumas, père, and Paul Meurice of William Shakespeare's play Hamlet.Fauser, Annegret. "Hamlet. Ophélie: Shakespeare in Paris" in Hamlet CD Booklet (1993), pp. 33–41.
Background
Ophelia mania in Paris The Parisian public's fascination with Ophelia, prototype of the femme fragile, began in the fall of 1827, when an English company directed by William Abbot came to Paris to give a season of Shakespeare in English at the Odéon. On 11 September 1827 the Irish actress Harriet Smithson played the part of Ophelia in Hamlet.Cairns, David (1969), p. 70.
Her mad scene appeared to owe little to tradition and seemed almost like an improvisation, with several contemporary accounts remarking on her astonishing capacity for mime. Her performances produced an extraordinary reaction: men wept openly in the theater, and when they left were "convulsed by uncontrollable emotion."Cairns, David (1969), pp. 619–620. The twenty-five-year-old Alexandre Dumas, père, who was about to embark on a major career as a novelist and dramatist, was in the audience and found the performance revelatory, "far surpassing all my expectations".Cairns, David (1999), p. 247. The French composer Hector Berlioz was also present at that opening night performance and later wrote: "The lightning flash of that sublime discovery opened before me at a stroke the whole heaven of art, illuminating it to its remotest depths. I recognized the meaning of dramatic grandeur, beauty, truth." Even the wife of the English ambassador, Lady Granville, felt compelled to report that the Parisians "roar over Miss Smithson's Ophelia, and strange to say so did I".Cairns, David (1999), p. 248. (The actress's Irish accent and the lack of power in her voice had hindered her success in London.) It wasn't long before new clothing and hair styles, à la mode d'Ophélie and modeled on those of the actress, became all the rage in Paris.
Not everything about the performance or the play was considered convincing. The supporting players were conceded to be weak. The large number of corpses on the stage in the final scene was found by many to be laughable. But Hamlet's interaction with the ghost of his father, the play-within-the-play, Hamlet's conflict with his mother, Ophelia's mad scene, and the scene with the gravediggers were all found to be amazing and powerful. The moment in the Play Scene when Claudius rises up and interrupts the proceedings, then rushes from the stage, provoked a long and enthusiastic ovation. The journal Pandore wrote about "that English candour which allows everything to be expressed and everything to be depicted, and for which nothing in nature is unworthy of imitation by drama". Dumas felt the play and the performances provided him "what I was searching for, what I lacked, what I had to find – actors forgetting they were on stage [...] actual speech and gesture such as made actors creatures of God, with their own virtues, passions and weaknesses, not wooden, impossible heroes booming sonorous platitudes".
The composer Berlioz was soon totally infatuated with Miss Smithson. His love for her, initially unrequited, became an obsession and served as inspiration for his music. His Symphonie fantastique (Fantastic Symphony, 1830) portrays an opium-induced vision in which the musician's beloved appears as a recurrent musical motif, the idée fixe, which like any obsession "finds its way into every incredible situation [movement]".Milder, John (1963). Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14. New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein, conductor. Liner notes for Columbia Masterworks LP MS 6607. . The Fantastic Symphony's sequel Lélio, ou Le retour à la vie (Lélio, or the Return to Life, 1831) contained a song Le pêcheur ("The Fisherman"), a setting of Goethe's ballad Der Fischer, the music of which included a quotation of the idée fixe that is associated with a siren who draws the hero to a watery grave.Rushton, Julian (1997), pp. 6–12 in Berlioz: Complete Orchestral Works, CD Booklet, Philips Classics Productions 456 143-2. . His Tristia, Op. 18, written in the 1830s although not published until 1852, included "La mort d'Ophélie" ("The death of Ophelia"), a setting of a ballade by Ernest Legouvé, the text of which is a free adaptation of Gertrude's monologue in act 4, scene 7. Berlioz married Smithson in 1833, although their relationship ultimately fell apart.Ernest Legouvé's French text for Berlioz' "La mort d'Ophélie" at "The Lied and Art Song Texts Page".
Although Harriet Smithson's stardom faded within a year and a half of her debut there, the Parisian fascination with the character of Ophelia continued unabated. Besides in music, it also manifested itself in art. Auguste Préault's relief Ophélie (1844) depicted a young woman wading into water with her hair let down and swirling in the current.
French versions of the play
By the early 1840s Alexandre Dumas, who had become a personal friend of Berlioz and Smithson,Barzun, Jacques (1969), 1: 277, 315. had achieved international fame with his historical novels and dramas. With the heightened interest in Shakespeare, and in particular Hamlet, that had been aroused by Smithson's performances at the Odéon, he decided to prepare a new French translation of the play to be presented at his Théâtre Historique. An earlier verse translation of Hamlet into French by Jean-François Ducis, first performed in 1769, was still being given at the Comédie-Française, and Dumas knew the leading role by heart. The Ducis play bore very little resemblance to the Shakespeare original. There were far fewer characters: no ghost, no Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, no players, no gravediggers. There was no duel, and Hamlet did not die at the end. Modifications such as these were necessary to gain performances in the French theaters of his time. Ducis had told the English actor-impresario David Garrick that a ghost which speaks, itinerant players, and a fencing duel were "absolutely inadmissible" on the French stage.Pemble, John (2005), p. 97. Dumas realized that Ducis' play was not the same as the original: Pierre Le Tourneur had published a relatively faithful prose translation, not intended for performance, in 1779. Nevertheless, moral propriety and politesse dictated that only such highly sanitized versions as that of Ducis could be performed on stage. The French referred to these performing editions as imitations, and most knew that they were highly modified versions of the original. All the same, Ducis was at first accused of polluting French theaters with Shakespeare; only much later was he indicted for mutilating the original.Pemble, John (2005), p. 98.
Dumas could not speak or read English well. He needed help, so he selected a younger writer by the name of Paul Meurice from among his coterie of protégés and assistants. Meurice had earlier collaborated with Auguste Vacquerie on Falstaff, a combination of Parts I and II of Shakespeare's Henry IV, which had been presented at the Odéon in 1842. The Dumas-Meurice Hamlet was performed at Dumas' Théâtre Historique in 1847 and had an enormous success. (With some alterations the Comédie-Française took it into repertory in 1886, and it continued to be performed in France until the middle of the 20th century.)Pemble, John (2005), p. 109.
The Dumas-Meurice version was more faithful to Shakespeare and restored much of what was missing from the Ducis version, including Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, the ghost, the duel, and the gravediggers. Still, by modern standards, it was a rather free adaptation of the original. Fortinbras was dropped, and the entire opening scene with the sentinels on the ramparts of the castle was excised. A love scene between Hamlet and Ophelia was added to the first act. Claudius does not send Hamlet to England, so Rosencrantz and Guildenstern do not die. Notably, at the end of the play, as Gertrude, Claudius, and Laertes are dying, the ghost of Hamlet's father reappears and condemns each of the dying characters. To Claudius it says: Désespère et meurs! – "Despair and die!"; to Laertes: Prie et meurs! – "Pray and die!"; and to the Queen: Espère et meurs! – "Hope and die!". When the wounded Hamlet asks: Et quel châtiment m'attend donc? – "And what punishment awaits me?", the ghost responds: Tu vivras! – "You shall live!", and the curtain falls.Pemble, John (2005), pp. 109–111.
Dumas explained these "improvements" to Shakespeare's play by insisting that the original violated plausibility, transgressed decency, and destroyed the dramatic balance. "Since Hamlet is not guilty to the same degree as the others, he should not die the same death as the others." Four dead bodies would constitute "the most unpleasant effect." Since the ghost appears at the beginning of the play, "it must necessarily reappear to be present at the end."Pemble, John (2005), p. 111.
Preparation of the libretto The librettists for the opera of Hamlet, Michel Carré and Jules Barbier, were experienced: they had already provided librettos for Thomas' Mignon and also for Gounod's Faust.Forbes, Elizabeth, "Hamlet" in Hamlet CD Booklet (1993), p. 21. They chose Dumas' version of the play as the basis for their libretto. This was the version with which French audiences of the day were most familiar, and the one against which the opera would be compared and judged.
When adapting a play for opera, it was imperative to shorten and simplify. Traditionally grand opera conveys plot in broad brushstrokes; the audience is not particularly interested in its intricacies, or its detours and complexities.White, Nicholas (2003). "Fictions and librettos" in Charlton, David, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Grand Opera, p. 45. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. . An uncut version of Shakespeare's play had more than 30 characters and could run for over four hours. The libretto reduced the total number of characters to fifteen (counting the four mime players required for the Play scene), and also reduced the number of subplots. Dumas had cut the scene with the sentinels Bernardo and Francisco. Gone also were Voltimand, Cornelius, Osric, and Reynaldo. Like Dumas, Fortinbras was omitted, thus there was no need to mention an invasion from Norway. Dumas omitted the subplot of Hamlet's voyage to England, so Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were also omitted, removing most of the black humor of the play. Polonius' accidental murder in act 4 was excised, and his singing part reduced to only eight measures.Salter, Lionel (1994). Review of the recording of Hamlet with Thomas Hampson. Gramophone, January 1994.
This simplification of characters and subplots focused the drama on Hamlet's predicament and its effects on Ophélie and left the opera with essentially 4 main characters: Hamlet and Ophélie, Claudius and Gertrude. This constellation of roles preserved the tetradic model and the balance of male and female parts which had become established in French grand opera at the time of Meyerbeer's Robert le diable in 1831. The libretto originally specified for these roles one soprano (Ophélie), one mezzo-soprano (Gertrude), one tenor (Hamlet), and one baritone or bass (Claudius).