[Met Performance] CID:15640



Hamlet
Metropolitan Opera House, Wed, December 4, 1895


In Italian?



Hamlet (8)
Ambroise Thomas | Michel Carré/Jules Barbier
Hamlet
Giuseppe Kaschmann

Ophélie
Emma Calvé

Claudius
Pol Plançon

Gertrude
Eugenia Mantelli

Laerte
Georges Mauguière

Polonius
Antonio De Vaschetti

Horatio
Lodovico Viviani

Marcellus
Antonio Rinaldini

Ghost
Armand Castelmary

Dance
Maria Giuri


Conductor
Enrico Bevignani


Director
William Parry





Translation by unknown
Hamlet received one performance this season.

Review 1:

Review of Henry Krehbiel in the New York Herald:

"Like Hamlet without Hamlet" is a simile that may date back to the days of Elsinore for aught I know. Most people, when they rattle off the dear old comparison, imagine, of course, that exaggeration can no further go. It was reserved for Ambroise Thomas to prove, however, that "Hamlet" without the Prince of Denmark is quite an easy matter. In his opera no one cares a snap for the gentleman with the inky cloak and the river in his eye. People sit about and chat. Now and then they cease talking, only to wonder at poor old Queen Gertrude and King Claudius going on so terribly, to marvel at the Worth of Elsinore (sad old faiseur that) and to ponder why composer ever made the melancholy Dane shout a drinking song.

Everybody puts up with the lugubrious proceedings, however, patiently waiting till the end, when it is hoped that some great Ophelia may indemnify them for the ennui and the sufferings of an ill spent evening. Such an Ophelia appeared in the person of Mme. Calve, at the Metropolitan Opera House last night. Other prima donnas have sung the mad scene - the whole part is so vaguely drawn, musically as well as dramatically, that it virtually resolves itself into this single opportunity - more brilliantly. Notwithstanding, this is the first Ophelia since the days of Christine Nilsson and Ilma di Murska. Vocally, it is incomparably the finest thing that Calvé has done here. Her tones had the eerie quality that quite made you forget the singer's virtuosity. A great artist it was that you were listening to, not a singer of scales trills, and staccati. It was really the mad, pathetic Ophelia of Shakespeare we saw last night, not a prima donna who masqueraded in the part. In this scene Calve moved her audience as much, nay more, than she had ever moved them as Carmen or Santuzza. For it was emotional singing and acting of the very highest order that they had seen and heard. In the early part of the opera - which should never be given - Mme. Calve was simple and unaffected, but conventional. Occasionally she sharpened, too. Perhaps that was merely a little realistic touch illustrative of "sweet bells jangled harsh and out of tune." But isn't that knowing one's Shakespeare too well? Let it be as it may. Calve has found a new role, or scene rather, in which she is beyond compare. If she would only overcome that sharp, choppy stride. Sarah, we can forgive this mannerism, but no one else.

What am I to say of Sig. Kaschmann's Hamlet? He wore a blond beard, the traditional sables, and sang his "wine and wassail" phrases with what your Falstaffian critics would call unction. His voice never lacked resonance nor breadth, but there was little melody in his tones, and the singer's ear seemed strangely defective. Not a Shakespearean embodiment this, in any sense, and not fine enough vocally to indemnify one for dramatic weaknesses.

It seems M. Plancon's misfortune always to have to appear in black velvet coats trimmed with either dark or light fur. That invariably means that he is a father and a hard-hearted man. You would never believe it, however, if you didn't know the text, so beautifully and sympathetically does the man sing his phrases.

The orchestra under Bevignani added considerably to the dolefulness of a lengthy and most tiresome entertainment.

Photographs of Emma Calvé as Ophélie by Aimé Dupont and Reutlinger, Paris.



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