Alas! poor Yorick

Yorick wasn't in the Metropolitan Opera's new production of the French composer, Ambroise Thomas' Hamlet when it premiered on Tuesday evening and he missed an excellent performance.  This version abridges much of the plot-in fact the original version had a happy ending.  Yet, I found myself connecting more with Hamlet's angst during the opera than I recall understanding it as an undergraduate when I last read the play.  Perhaps it's the wisdom that comes with age, but it could also be that the opera cut to the essential conflict of regicide and sexual tension.  The outstanding baritone Simon Keenlyside was a compelling and virile actor, and the other principal performers were as strong actors as they were as singers.   For the first time I understood Hamlet's repulsion that his mother had married his uncle within two months of his father's death.  Jennifer Larmore, the mezzo soprano who played Queen Gertrude had a youthful figure and commanding profile and I could sense the Oedipal conflict between Hamlet and his mother much more vividly.  "Commanding profile" puts it kindly-her high forehead looks frightful in the photo above but from the Grand Tier where I sat she looked convincingly like one of the upper East Side "lemon tarts" who are thin and stylish. 

The nineteenth century musical score, much like Lucia di Lammermoor, was romantic and brooding. I had wanted to see this opera in order to see Natalie Dessay play Ophelie as well as Keenlyside.  But Dessay withdrew due to illness and a young German soprano stepped in at the last minute. There is a fascinating short video on the NYTimes review that documents the last minute flurry to get Marlis Petersen prepared for the role.  Her voice was beautiful, so clear as a bell that for a minute I wondered if she was amplified as her sweet tone reached me in my upper level seats. And her Act IV mad scene was painfully beautiful.  So I may not have seen a classic Dessay performance, but I think I saw the debut of a major new star.  Only time will tell.  Oh, and this Hamlet maintained the tragic ending, so as Keenlyside fell to the stage I could only think "Good night sweet prince," flights of angels sang thee to thy rest.