Hamlet at West Edge

Conductor:  Jonathan Khuner
Director:  Aria Umezawa

Hamlet:  Edward Nelson
Gertrude, Hamlet's mother:  Susanne Mentzer
Ghost of Hamlet's father:  Kenneth Kellogg
King Claudius, Hamlet's Uncle:  Phil Skinner
Ophélie, Hamlet's fiance:  Emma McNairy
Polonius, Ophélie's father:  Paul Cheak

Hamlet (1868) by Ambroise Thomas was presented by West Edge to open their festival at the Pacific Pipe warehouse in Oakland.  The abandoned train station which was the venue for last season was recently condemned by the city of Oakland due to a recent fire that resulted in casualties.  This resulted in a scramble to find a new space.  I for one was not particularly happy with this.

In a nearby building were people preparing for Burning Man.  Somehow you knew that this was a Bay Area phenomenon.  They played very loudly amplified low pitched thumpy music throughout this performance.  It was like your stereo was malfunctioning and all you could get were the lowest notes.  I thought it was very annoying.  There were three large doors in our space which were kept open.  One faced the other space where the noise originated.  It seemed to me that closing this door would have gone a long way toward reducing the thump thump roar not composed by Thomas.

I could go into a rant here.  Not the right repertoire, etc.  I liked the singing but couldn't see very well.  What if the stage were in the center of the space?  I don't know if this would work. I very much regret having to give this a pan.

West Edge Summer Festival 2017

Not to worry.  The abandoned train station in Oakland where West Edge Opera holds their performances has been fixed up some.  I just liked the picture.

West Edge Opera has already announced their season for 2017.  As usual, it will consist of three operas from three opera periods.

Hamlet, 1868, by Ambroise Thomas.  This opera comes with two possible endings:  tragic and happy.  In English speaking countries you will usually see the tragic ending.  Emma McNairy will sing Ophelie.

The Chastity Tree or L'arbore di Diana, 1797, by Vicente Martín y Soler.  The exciting feature of this selection is that the libretto is by Lorenzo da Ponte.  The composer is a Spanish contemporary of Mozart. 

Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus, 1990, by Libby Larsen.  I must make a correction.  The program says that this is being presented in recognition of the 100th anniversary of Mary Shelley's novel, but the correct statement is the 200th anniversary, since the novel was first published in 1818.

For serious opera freaks we love them because they rarely dip into the top 50.  Only Hamlet is an opera that I have seen before.

Hamlet with Natalie

After seeing Hamlet from the Met, I felt a certain lack of completeness about the whole thing and ordered the DVD with Simon Keenlyside and Natalie Dessay. It needs Natalie. No one does mad scenes like Natalie. In this film she does coloratura while slashing her wrists. The minor characters are not as strong as the Met production, but this is definitely the one you want.

I have now seen both endings for this opera. The Metropolitan Opera simulcast used the Anglo-Saxon approved ending where Hamlet dies. This DVD shows a wounded Hamlet singing about going to be with Ophelie while the chorus hails him as the new king. He could still die from his wounds, but that isn't shown.
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Hamlet in HD

Hamlet..................Simon Keenlyside
Ophélie.................Marlis Petersen
Claudius................James Morris
Gertrude................Jennifer Larmore
Laerte..................Toby Spence
Polonius................Maxim Mikhailov
Horatio.................Liam Bonner

Conductor...............Louis Langrée
Production..............Patrice Caurier, Moshe Leiser

Not one note of Ambroise Thomas' Hamlet (1868), today's HD simulcast from the Metropolitan Opera, was familiar to me. Not to worry. The romantic idiom of the piece is exactly as expected.

In Renée Fleming's interviews at intermission it was mentioned that the opera originally did not include Hamlet's death, and Anglo-Saxon audiences were horrified. As a result, an alternate ending was written in which Hamlet and Laertes fight and mortally wound one another. This later ending is the one used today.

On the whole I would recommend while viewing this opera to remember that this is an opera and not the immortal play by Shakespeare. Hamlet's father's death in the opera is the result of a conspiracy, and Polonius, Ophelia's father, is a co-conspirator. Ophelia's role is naturally bigger, and Hamlet's is smaller than in the play. It's still a wonderful role for an acting baritone, such as Simon Keenlyside. His voice didn't seem at all odd to me this time as he had at Garnier last month, and he seemed ideal for this role.

Marlis Petersen replaced Natalie Dessay. She was acceptable, especially in the mad scene. The general level of intensity was high across the cast with the exception of Marlis who seemed rather cool. It would have been different with Natalie.

The biggest shock for me was Jennifer Larmore as Gertrude. She was a bit out of her Fach in a dramatic mezzo part, but she developed a fully realized characterization that was quite intense.

All in all it was a lot of fun.

[See Kinderkuchen History 1850-70]