We left at the interval...

ONP Bastille, Monday March 27 2023 Conductor: Pierre Dumoussaud. Production: Krzysztof Warlikowski. Sets and Costumes: Małgorzata Szczęśniak. Lighting: Felice Ross. Video: Denis Guéguin. Hamlet: Ludovic Tézier. Claudius: Jean Teitgen. Laërte: Julien Behr. Spectre: Clive Bayley. Horatio: Frédéric Caton. Marcellus: Julien Henric. Gertrude: Eve-Maud Hubeaux. Ophélie: Lisette Oropesa. Polonius: Philippe Rouillon. Premier Fossoyeur: Alejandro Baliñas Vieites. Deuxième Fossoyeur: Maciej Kwaśnikowski. Orchestra and Chorus of the Opéra National De Paris. Photos: Bernd Uhlig, ONP (Tip for people in a hurry: this is a long post, but after the asterisks near the end, I sum the production up in a few words.) This wasn't the first time I'd seen Thomas's Hamlet . I saw it in my pre-blogging days, with Natalie Dessay and Thomas Hampson, and again, ten years ago, with Franco Pomponi and Rachele Gilmore in Olivier Py's production in Brussels . But this was the first time I can ever reme...

La Monnaie, Brussels, Sunday December 15 2013 Conductor: Marc Minkowski. Production: Olivier Py. Sets and Costumes: Pierre-André Weitz. Lighting: Bertrand Killy. Claudius: Vincent Le Texier. La Reine Gertrude: Sylvie Brunet-Grupposo. Hamlet: Franco Pomponi. Polonius: Till Fechner. Ophélie: Rachele Gilmore. Laërte: Rémy Mathieu. Horatio/Premier Fossoyeur: Henk Neven. Marcellus/Deuxième Fossoyeur: Gijs Van der Linden. Le Spectre du feu Roi: Jérôme Varnier. Orchestra and Chorus of La Monnaie. True to form, La Monnaie has given us, and Ambroise Thomas, a generous Christmas present, albeit not a very cheerful one of course, by doing his Hamlet (or must I call it "the Danish play"?) proud. A. Thomas Olivier Py's production was more solidly successful than his recent Alceste and Aida in Paris, with fewer directorial sillinesses (though tics there were: bare-chested demons with kinky mastiffs' heads, chalking on walls and floor, a chorus bearing banners marked " L...