Hamlet (Jost)
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| Title: | Hamlet |
| Shape: | 12 musical and dramatic tableaux based on William Shakespeare |
| Original language: | German English |
| Music: | Christian Jost |
| Libretto : | Christian Jost |
| Literary source: | William Shakespeare : Hamlet |
| Premiere: | June 21, 2009 |
| Place of premiere: | Komische Oper Berlin |
| Playing time: | approx. 2 ½ hours |
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Hamlet is an opera (original name: "12 music-dramatic tableaux after William Shakespeare") by Christian Jost , who put together the libretto himself from the English original text of Shakespeare's play Hamlet and the translation by August Wilhelm Schlegel and Ludwig Tieck . The world premiere took place on June 21, 2009 at the Komische Oper Berlin .
action
1. Tableau. Hamlet is plagued by inner voices and thinks of suicide. His friend Horatio tries to talk him out of this idea. His father's ghost calls on Hamlet to avenge his death because he was murdered in his sleep by his own brother Claudius. Claudius has in the meantime usurped the royal dignity and married Gertrud, his brother's widow.
2. Tableau. Claudius and Gertrud urge Hamlet to stop mourning his father. However, Hamlet confides in Horatio that he has seen signs that point to an impending disaster.
3. Tableau. Claudius asks two old friends of Hamlet, Rosenkranz and Güldenstern, to cheer Hamlet up and find out the reason for his bad mood. Polonius intercepted a letter from Hamlet to his daughter Ophelia. He believes Hamlet is lovesick and wants to arrange a meeting between the two to overhear them.
4. Tableau. Rosenkranz and Güldenstern try to get Hamlet, but he has lost all interest in the usual games. Polonius reports that actors have arrived.
5. Tableau. Rosenkranz and Güldenstern tell Claudius about their failure. Polonius asks his daughter to engage Hamlet in a conversation. When she does so, Hamlet confesses that he once loved her, but he is no longer interested in her. He suggests that she enter a monastery. His inner voices come in throughout the conversation. Ophelia is appalled to see Hamlet in this confused state. Claudius believes there is something other than lovesickness behind it.
6. Tableau. Hamlet decides to use the upcoming spectacle to test the veracity of the statements of the Spirit and to put his uncle to the test. The others arrive and the game, called The Mousetrap, begins. The mind plays a central role in this. He sings his notes almost instrumentally without text. Hamlet and Horatio closely watch the king's reactions. You are now convinced of his guilt.
7. Tableau. Claudius is deeply outraged by Hamlet's behavior. It approaches silently. His inner voices warn him to finally take action.
8. Tableau. Polonius goes into hiding to watch Gertrude's conversation with Hamlet. Hamlet initially replies to her allegations by twisting her own words. Then he fakes a fit of madness and kills the hidden Polonius with the cry "A rat!" He explains that this bloody act is almost as bad as killing the king and marrying his brother. The mind is not yet satisfied by Hamlet's act. Gertrude is horrified when Hamlet reveals his plan to kill Claudius to her.
9. Tableau. Hamlet meets soldiers on a campaign of conquest. He talks to Horatio about the point in sending so many people to their death for a piece of land. He is ashamed of his own inaction.
10. Tableau. Gertrud is plagued by remorse. Ophelia enters. She lost her mind after Hamlet's murder of her father. Rosenkranz and Güldenstern report that their brother Laertes and some supporters entered the palace in a rage. Shortly afterwards he appears in search of the murderer of his father Polonius. Claudius immediately pulls him to his side to jointly take action against Hamlet. Ophelia has meanwhile left the room. Shortly afterwards the news of her drowning arrives.
11. Tableau. Hamlet and Horatio watch two clowns play with a skull while they dig a grave for a “woman who was”.
12. Tableau. While Ophelia's funeral procession with Laertes, Claudius and Gertrud approaches, the inner voices read Hamlet's famous monologue (“To be, or not to be”). Only now does Hamlet realize that the grave is intended for Ophelia. He remembers his former love for her. There is a duel between him and Laertes, in which the two kill each other. Gertrud dies too - she accidentally ingested a poisonous potion that Claudius had prepared for Hamlet.
layout
Christian Jost assigns the title role of his Hamlet opera to a mezzo-soprano in order to point out the “universal validity beyond individual fate”. He regards the material as a "story of a surreal journey inside". The person Hamlet is "dissolved" at the most important points of the plot. The reflective monologues are given to the choir of its “inner voices”. Similarly, the spirit is portrayed by a polyphonic ensemble of singers. The sound language of Hamlet is mostly dreamlike, soft and androgynous.
"These choral movements expand the space of the title hero and distort the time structure of the immediate action by gathering the driving moments and presenting them at high speed, while the monologues, carried by inner tension, establish themselves as islands of repose in the overall structure."
The opera is divided into twelve tableaus, each of which is assigned its own sound language. Each tableau is introduced by a "music that primes the scene". The order is not mandatory, as Jost was more concerned with the "expression, the expression of physical gestures and theatrical images" than with a representation of the course of action over time. He shortened the template accordingly to the psychologically most important parts.
In the play of the sixth tableau, the characters themselves act as actors.
The orchestra is divided into two similarly cast halves, which occasionally play "clattering" at different tempos. In terms of sound, the low notes and the drums are preferred. The flutes are occasionally overblown . The choir is also assigned instrumental sections that are sung from the off . Peter P. Pachl described the music as original and postmodern : “Unisono bass figures [remind] of the late Wagner , the bowed hoopla on the glass harp in Strauss , jazz elements of Schreker's contemporary opera 'Christophorus' and the cluster-like chords in Ophelia's death to Berg's death chord sequences . ”The conclusion is formed by a thinned a-cappella chorus phrase, which, in response to Hamlet's closing words“ design ”, itself seems like a draft - for Pachl“ another form of 'rest is silence' ”.
orchestra
The orchestral line-up for the opera includes the following instruments:
- Woodwinds : three flutes (all also piccolo , 3rd also bass flute), three clarinets (2nd also E-flat clarinet , 3rd also bass clarinet ), bassoon , contrabassoon
- Brass : four horns , two trombones , bass trombone , double bass trombone
- Percussion (two players): cymbals , tam-tam , three tom-toms , four rototoms , bass drum
- piano
- Strings : eight violins , eight violas , eight cellos , four double basses
- Stage music : flugelhorn , vibraphone , glasses , violoncello
The orchestra is divided into a left and a right half. On the left the flutes, bassoon, two horns, a trombone, bass trombone, a drummer with cymbals, tam-tam and tom-toms, piano and half of the strings play. On the right play the clarinets, double bassoon, two horns, a trombone, double bass trombone, a percussionist with rototoms and bass drum and the other half of the strings.
Work history
Christian Jost's opera Hamlet was commissioned by the Komische Oper Berlin in 2008 . Jost had been interested in Shakespeare's play Hamlet since his youth . He also put together the libretto himself, for which he used passages from the English original text as well as the translation by August Wilhelm Schlegel and Ludwig Tieck . English and German sections of text alternate or overlap.
The world premiere on June 21, 2009 was conducted by the conductor Carl St. Clair. The production was done by Andreas Homoki , set design and costumes by Wolfgang Gussmann . Jost's wife Stella Doufexis sang the title role . Tom Erik Lie (Horatio), Jens Larsen (Claudius), Gertrud Ottenthal (Gertrud), Jürgen Sacher (Polonius), Caren van Oijen (Rosenkranz), Peter Renz (Güldenstern), Karolina Andersson (Ophelia) and James played the other roles Elliott (Laertes). The production was well received by the public and voted "World Premiere of the Year" in Opernwelt magazine's critics' survey .
The next production was in 2011 at the Dortmund Opera in a production by Peter te Nuyl with the Dortmund Philharmonic under the direction of Jac van Steen . Maria Hilmes sang the title role.
Web links
- Libretto by Schott Music
- Trailer of the Komische Oper Berlin on YouTube
- Trailer of the Dortmund Theater on YouTube
- Review of the Dortmund performance in the Capriccio-Kulturforum
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g work information from Verlag Schott Music , accessed on February 14, 2019.
- ↑ a b Kirsten Liese: Vertigo-Hamlet. Review of the first performance in the archive 2009 on klassikinfo.de, accessed on February 15, 2019.
- ↑ a b c Georg-Friedrich Kühn: The hesitant Danish prince. Review of the world premiere on deutschlandfunk.de, June 22, 2009, accessed on February 14, 2019.
- ↑ a b c d Peter P. Pachl : Christian Jost's "Hamlet" at the Komische Oper Berlin as a psychogram in black and white. In: Neue Musikzeitung , June 22, 2009, accessed on February 14, 2019.
- ↑ Arno Lücker : "Hamlet" at the Komische Oper - an interview with composer Christian Jost. In: Neue Musikzeitung , June 20, 2009, accessed on February 14, 2019.
- ↑ Kai Luehrs-Kaiser : From full hands. Review of the premiere. In: Opernwelt , August 2009, p. 41.
- ↑ Christoph Schulte in the forest: On the search. Review of the performance in Dortmund 2011 on o-ton.online, May 13, 2011, accessed on February 15, 2019.