Caurier and Leiser Debuted New Met Staging of Thomas's Hamlet in 2010

Summary: Caurier and Leiser debuted new Met staging of Thomas's Hamlet in 2010 in an end of 113 inactive years for the opera company's first Hamlet opera.

Simon Keenlyside's Hamlet and Marlis Petersen's Ophélie appear in the 2009-2010 season's production of Thomas's Hamlet; Caurier and Leiser's production replaces Thomas's original ending of Hamlet's survival and kingship with the composer's alternative, Shakespearean-akin ending of Hamlet's death; costumes by Agostino Cavalca: By BATTAGLIA @bybattaglia, via Twitter July 19, 2018

Caurier and Leiser debuted new Met staging of Thomas's Hamlet in 2010 in an ending of 112 seasons of nonperformance of the opera company's first Hamlet opera.

French director Patrice Caurier and Belgian director Moshe Leiser, international opera's exclusive collaborators since 1982, debuted their new production of Hamlet by French composer Ambroise Thomas (Aug. 5, 1811-Feb. 12, 1896) at the Metropolitan Opera House in the 2009-2010 season. The debut of their new production marked Met Opera debuts for both directors.

The new staging received eight spring performances in its debut season. The first through eighth, closing performances took place Tuesday, March 16, 2010; Saturday, March 20; Wednesday, March 24; Saturday, March 27; Tuesday, March 30; Friday, April 2; Monday, April 5; and Friday, April 9.

Caurier and Leiser's production team comprised Christian Fenouillat, set designer; Agostino Cavalca, costume designer; and Christophe Forey, lighting designer. The three designers made their Met Opera debuts alongside directors Caurier and Leiser.

Caurier and Leiser's new production at Met Opera replaced Thomas's original ending, in which Hamlet survives and becomes Denmark's new king, with a variation of Thomas's alternate ending. Known as the Covent Garden ending, Thomas devised a more Shakespearean ending, in which Hamlet dies, for his opera's international premiere in Italian at the Royal Italian Opera House (renamed Royal Opera House in 1892). The alternative ending, however, was never performed during the composer's lifetime, according to University of Alabama Voice Instructor and Associate Director of Opera Bonita Elissa Bunt's May 2017 Ph.D. dissertation (pages 6-7) for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Louis Langrée (born Jan. 11, 1961) was the new production's conductor. The French conductor had made his Met Opera debut Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2007, in the opera company's sixth performance of Iphigénie en Tauride by German classical composer Christoph von Gluck (July 2, 1714-Nov. 15, 1787).

Simon Keenlyside sang the new production's title role. The British baritone had made his Met Opera debut Wednesday, Nov. 6, 1996, as Belcore in the opera company's 222nd performance of L'Elisir d'Amore by Italian composer Francesco Cilea (July 23, 1866-Nov. 20, 1950).

Marlis Petersen sang Ophélie in the first six of the new production's eight performances. The German operatic coloratura soprano had made her Met Opera debut Monday, Dec. 19, 2005, as Adele in the opera company's 203rd performance of Die Fledermaus by Austrian light music composer Johann Strauss II (born Johann Baptist Strauss; Oct. 25, 1825-June 3, 1899).

Marlis Petersen shared the role with Jane Archibald, who sang Ophélie in the new production's seventh (Monday, April 5) and eighth, closing (Friday, April 9) performances. The Canadian coloratura soprano's appearance in the seventh performance marked her Met Opera debut.

James Morris sang Claudius, whose kingship and marriage apparently necessitated his murdering his brother, King Hamlet. The American bass-baritone had made his Met Opera debut Thursday, Jan. 7, 1971, as the King in the opera company's 782nd performance of Aida by Italian opera composer Giuseppe Verdi (Oct. 10, 1813-Jan. 27, 1901).

Jennifer Larmore sang Gertrude, Hamlet's mother, who dispenses with her brief widowhood by marrying her deceased husband's brother, Claudius. The American mezzo-soprano had made her Met Opera debut Monday, Feb. 6, 1995, as Rosina in the opera company's 468th performance of Il Barbiere di Siviglia by Italian composer Gioachino Rossini (Feb. 29, 1792-Nov. 13, 1868).

Toby Spence sang Laerte, Ophélie's brother. The British operatic tenor's appearance in the new production's debut performance, Tuesday, March 16, marked his Met Opera debut.

Maxim Mikhailov sang Polonius, Ophélie's father. The Russian operatic bass made his Met Opera debut in the new production's debut performance, Tuesday, March 16.

Liam Bonner sang Horatio, Hamlet's friend, who tells him about his prevous night's witnessing, with Marcellus, the Ghost of King Hamlet on the ramparts. The American operatic baritone made his Met Opera debut Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2010, as Moralès in the opera company's 956th performance of Carmen by French Romantic Era composer Georges Bizet (Oct. 25, 1838-June 3, 1875).

Matthew Plenk sang Marcellus, who, with Horatio, accompanies Hamlet to the ramparts and withdraws, with Horatio, when the King Hamlet's Ghost appears for a private conversation with his son, Prince Hamlet. The American operatic tenor had made his Met Opera debut Monday, March 10, 2008, as the Sailor's Voice in the opera company's 444th performance of Tristan und Isolde by German Romantic Era composer and librettist Richard Wagner (May 22, 1813-Feb. 13, 1883).

David Pittsinger sang Ghost of Hamlet's father, King Hamlet, who commands his son's avenging of his regicide-fratricide by his brother, Claudius. The American bass-baritone had made his Met Opera debut Thursday, Nov. 20, 1997, as Trulove in the opera company's ninth performance of The Rake’s Progress by Russian-born composer, conductor and pianist Igor Stravinsky (June 17, 1882-April 6, 1971).

Richard Bernstein sang the First Gravedigger, who is digging a new grave, unknowingly, for Ophélie. The American operatic bass had made his Met Opera debut Saturday, Oct. 7, 1995, as Zuniga in the opera company’s 828th performance of Bizet's Carmen.

Mark Schowalter sang the Second Gravedigger, who also does not know whose grave is being prepared. The American operatic tenor had made his Met Opera debut Friday, Feb. 19, 1999, as the Young Servant in the opera company’s 85th performance of Elektra by German late Romantic and early modern composer Richard Strauss (June 11, 1864-Sept. 8, 1949).

Peter Richards, Joshua Wynter and Christian Rozakis acted the respective parts of the new production's Player King, Player Queen and Player Villain. All three actors made their Met Opera debuts in their player roles.

The Metropolitan Opera Archives Database (MetOpera Database) notes the ownership of Caurier and Leiser's new production at Met Opera by the Grand Théâtre de Gèneve. Caurier and Leiser's production premiered in 1996 at the Grand Théâtre de Gèneve with Louis Langrée's conductorship and Simon Keenlyside's title role.

The takeaways for Caurier and Leiser's new Met staging of Thomas's Hamlet in 2010 are that the new production replaces Thomas's original, non-Shakespearean, happy ending of Hamlet's survival and kingship with Thomas's alternative, Shakespearean-style ending in which Hamlet dies; and that the new Met production features reprisals of Louis Langrée's conductorship and of Simon Keenlyside's title role from the production's 1996 premiere in the Grand Théâtre de Gèneve.

Caurier and Leiser's new Met Opera production of Thomas's Hamlet in the 2009-2010 season ended the opera's 113-year absence from Met Opera's performance roster; sets by Christian Fenouillat, costumes by Agostino Cavalca and lighting by Christophe Forey: The Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera, via Facebook Nov. 25, 2020

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Simon Keenlyside's Hamlet and Marlis Petersen's Ophélie appear in the 2009-2010 season's production of Thomas's Hamlet; Caurier and Leiser's production replaces Thomas's original ending of Hamlet's survival and kingship with the composer's alternative, Shakespearean-akin ending of Hamlet's death; costumes by Agostino Cavalca: By BATTAGLIA @bybattaglia, via Twitter July 19, 2018, @ https://twitter.com/bybattaglia/status/1020003906485735427

Caurier and Leiser's new Met Opera production of Thomas's Hamlet in the 2009-2010 season ended the opera's 113-year absence from Met Opera's performance roster; sets by Christian Fenouillat, costumes by Agostino Cavalca and lighting by Christophe Forey: The Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera, via Facebook Nov. 25, 2020, @ https://www.facebook.com/MetOpera/posts/10164582007205533

For further information:

Bunt, Bonita Elissa. Finding the Shakespeare in Ambroise Thomas' Hamlet: A Comparison of Plot and Character in the Seventeenth-century English Play and the Nineteenth-century French Opera" (2017). Ph.D. dissertation, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, May 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.34917/10985800
Available @ https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3956&context=thesesdissertations

By BATTAGLIA @bybattaglia. "Nuevo video completo para ver HAMLET de A. Thomas, desde el MET con Marlis Petersen y Simon Keenlyside http://desdelaplatea.com/videos/hamlet-." Twitter. July 19, 2018.
Available @ https://twitter.com/bybattaglia/status/1020003906485735427

Clark, Peter. "French Opera at the Met." The Metropolitan Opera > Discover > Archives.
Available @ https://www.metopera.org/discover/archives/notes-from-the-archives/from-the-archives-french-opera-at-the-met/

Clements, Andrew. "Hamlet." The Guardian > Culture > Music. May 14, 2003.
Available @ https://www.theguardian.com/music/2003/may/14/classicalmusicandopera.theatre

Davis, Peter G. "In Defense of the Singing Hamlet." The New York Times > Arts > Music. March 12, 2010.
Available @ https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/14/arts/music/14hamlet.html

"Debut: Jane Archibald." MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 353470 Hamlet {16} Metropolitan Opera House: 04/05/2010.
Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=326380

"Debut: Liam Bonner." MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 353357 Carmen {956} Metropolitan Opera House: 02/09/2010.
Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=353357

"Debut: Matthew Plenk." MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 352409 Tristan und Isolde {444} Metropolitan Opera House: 03/10/2008.
Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=352409

"Debuts: David Pittsinger, Peter J. Davison, Judy Levin, Jennifer Tipton." MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 330180 New Production The Rake's Progress {9} Metropolitan Opera House: 11/20/1997.
Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=322990

"Debuts: Denyce Graves, Barbara Frittoli, Richard Bernstein." MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 322060 Carmen {828} Metropolitan Opera House: 10/7/1995.
Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=322060

"Debuts: James Morris, Jacques Cesbron." MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 224150 Aida {782} Metropolitan Opera House: 01/7/1971.
Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=224150

"Debuts: Janez Lotric, Marlis Petersen, Bill Irwin." MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 351386 Die Fledermaus {203} Metropolitan Opera House: 12/19/2005.
Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=326380

"Debuts: Jeffrey Black, Jennifer Larmore." MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 319310 Il Barbiere di Siviglia {468} Metropolitan Opera House: 02/6/1995.
Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=319310

"Debuts: Louis Langrée, Sasha Cooke, Michele Losier, Jacqueline Antaramian, Mark Capri." MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 352202 New Production Iphigénie en Tauride {6} Metropolitan Opera House: 11/27/2007.
Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=352202

"Debuts: Patrice Caurier, Moshe Leiser, Christian Fenouillat, Agostino Cavalca, Christophe Forey, Toby Spence, Maxim Mikhailov, Peter Richards, Joshua Wynter, Christian Rozakis." MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 353424 New Production Hamlet {10} Metropolitan Opera House: 03/16/2010.
Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=353424

"Debuts: Simon Keenlyside, Anita Johnson." MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 326380 L'Elisir d'Amore {222} Metropolitan Opera House: 11/6/1996.
Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=326380

Law, Joe K. (Keith). "Three Hamlets Ambroise Thomas." The Opera Quarterly, vol. 19, issue 3 (Summer; Sep. 1, 2003): 587-591.
Available via Oxford Academic @ https://academic.oup.com/oq/article-abstract/19/3/587/1529763

Marriner, Derdriu. "Hamlet Opened Feb. 21, 1884, as 18th Opera in Met Opera's First Season." Earth and Space News. Monday, Jan. 18, 2021.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2021/01/hamlet-opened-feb-21-1884-as-18th-opera.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Met Opera Staged Thomas's Hamlet Feb. 21, 1884, as First Hamlet Opera." Earth and Space News. Monday, Nov. 8, 2021.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2021/11/met-opera-staged-thomass-hamlet-feb-21.html

The Metropolitan Opera. "Great Dane." The Metropolitan Opera > Discover.
Available @ https://www.metopera.org/user-information/nightly-met-opera-streams/articles/great-dane/

The Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera. "After an absence of more than a century, Ambroise Thomas’s Hamlet returned to the Met stage in 2010, with Simon Keenlyside starring in the title role. Read what the celebrated baritone had to say about taking on a character with such a 'host of moods and colors' and see his performance in tonight’s free Nightly Met Opera Stream, available starting at 7:30PM ET until tomorrow, November 26, at 6:30PM ET. Access the stream on metopera.org and on all Met Opera on Demand apps. Enhance your viewing experience with curated supplementary content—including Playbills, articles, and more—at metopera.org/FamilyDrama and access the stream on metopera.org and on all Met Opera on Demand apps." Facebook. Nov. 25, 2020.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/MetOpera/posts/10164582007205533

The Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera. "Marlis Petersen saves the opera! Watch this amazing video that follows Petersen during her first and only rehearsals 72 hours before the new production premiere of Hamlet. Petersen only came into the role one week earlier when Natalie Dessay withdrew because of Illness. Enjoy!" Twitter. March 18, 2010.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/MetOpera/posts/374530558556

"Metropolitan Opera Premiere: Hamlet.” MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 2030 Metropolitan Opera Premiere Hamlet {1} Music Hall, Cincinnati, Ohio: 02/21/1884.
Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=1540

"New Production: Hamlet." MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 11570 Hamlet {7} Metropolitan Opera House: 12/6/1893.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2021/01/hamlet-opened-feb-21-1884-as-18th-opera.html

"New Production: Hamlet." MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 353424 New Production Hamlet {10} Metropolitan Opera House: 03/16/2010.
Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=353424

"New Production: Iphigénie en Tauride." MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 352202 New Production Iphigénie en Tauride {6} Metropolitan Opera House: 11/27/2007.
Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=352202

Rees, Jasper. "Opera Directors Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser." The Arts Desk > Opera > theartsdesk Q&A. April 3, 2010.
Available @ https://www.theartsdesk.com/opera/theartsdesk-qa-opera-directors-patrice-caurier-and-moshe-leiser

Taliesin Arts Centre @TaliesinSwansea. "Thomas’s Hamlet, free on Met Opera for 24hrs, features an elevated role for Ophélie in Ambroise Thomas’s retelling of the Shakespeare classic. First premiered in 1868, it's as shocking and passionate as it was on the day it first graced the stage." Twitter. Nov. 26, 2020.
Available @ https://twitter.com/TaliesinSwansea/status/1331964425620828161