Theater can be magic and Hamlet is no exception. During Act II the characters all exit leaving an elegant room empty but for a conspicuous dark rectangle cut out of the ceiling. We see nothing but it and the top of the curtain. Slowly the ceiling begins to lower and we see Hamlet standing on the top beside a pile of dirt. The very second it reaches the floor, a gravedigger pops out of the rectangle. Gimmicks like this bump the 4th wall a little, but are wonderful when they work and a wonderful wink to an experience hungry audience.
Everyone brought their best performance to the matinee being recorded for HD today. Allan Clayton plays a perfect Hamlet mercurially twisted up in love, guilt, and revenge.
The libretto plays with Shakespeares tight phrases oft repeated in different tones and changing orchestration giving it layers of connotation reveal Hamlet’s changing feelings as he wrestles between love for his mother and Ophelia and revenge for the betrayal of his father. On top of all that he has some really, really big step father issues.
The orchestra is a modern wall of sound with enough pause and punctuation that it feels more thoughtful than just a modern action films soundtrack that I was afraid in the beginning it might turn out to be. I normally hate to see opera use speakers to play recorded sound but it worked as part of the layering that included sounds of plastic bottles and chorus and horns in the balcony, it all elbowed its way into the future.
The length! It is asking a lot, a lot of an audience to sit through a first act that is an hour and forty five minutes long. I would have preferred two intermissions. I also would have liked a scene that established hamlets love for Ophelia and his father, as it was and the actor was brilliant and fun and drew me in, I don’t know if they ever established the relationships enough in the beginning that I really felt like Hamlet was losing anything other than his mind.
Maybe it was all the blood covering the singers at the end that inspired us to treat ourselves to an amazing Italian restaurant after the opera. I swirl the wine. When the waiter brings me the check I give him a look of ‘don’t assume’ and tilt my head to the other side of the table. Her dress matches the color of her red credit card on the white table cloth and I thank her for an amazing dinner before we walk along the Hudson waterfront just after sunset.
So what is Hamlet all about? Hamlet is a murder mystery where we watch the title character try to discover who killed his father and how to avenge his murder. It is also a psychological spiral of emotion while we watch the famously mercurial Hamlet navigate through the other cast members. Blood will flow.
Notes on the Production:
Composer…………………………… Brett Dean
Libretto……………………………….. Mathew Jocelyn
Hamlet…………………………………. Allan Clayton
Ophelia………………………………… Brenda Rae
Claudius……………………………… Rod Gilfy
Laertes……………………………….. David Butt Philip
Ghost………………………………….. John Relyea
Rosencrantz……………………… Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen
Guildenstern…………………….. Christopher lowrey
Horatio……………………………….. Jacques Imbrailo
Met Opera
6/4/22