HAMLET
OPERA IN FIVE ACTS BY AMBROISE THOMAS
PHOTOS © S. Novković 2011
PRODUCTION
Croatian National Opera Zagreb
artistic director opera: Branko Mihanović
première: 19 November 2011
conductor: Hervé Niquet
stage director / set design: Michiel Dijkema
costume design: Claudia Damm
light design: Bas Berensen
choreography: Leo Mujić
Hamlet: George von Bergen / Davor Radić / Alen Ruško
Ophélie: Gorana Biondić / Ivana Lazar
Claudius: Ozren Bilušić / Luciano Batinić / Berislav Puškarić
Gertrude: Dubravka Šeparović Mušović / Diana Hilje / Kristina Kolar
Polonius: Saša Ivaci / Robert Palić
Laërte: Domagoj Dorotić / Nikša Radovanović
Horatio: Henrik Šimunković / Ozren Bilušić
Marcellus: Marko Cvetko / Tvrtko Stipić
1. Fossoyeur: Siniša Štork
2. Fossoyeur: Stjepan Franetović
Le Spectre: Ivica Trubić
Les histrions: Dušan Gojić, Kristijan Potočki, Silvio Vovk
Saxophone: Nikola Fabijanić
Rosencrantz: Hrvoje Meštrov
Guildenstern: Saša Tomić
Ballet: Milka Hribar Bartolović, Silviu Tanase, Iva Vitić Gameiro, Guilherme Gameiro Alves, Natalia Horsnell, Edgar Castillo, Simona Unterajter, George Baldovin
chorus, ballet, orchestra and extras of the Croatian Nationaloper Zagreb
PRESS QUOTES
“concentrated [...] particularly clever”
[...] still every new production is a remarkable act. Now the Zagreb State Opera has revitalized Hamlet – and can celebrate an audience success. The production wants to make a strength out of the weakness of this Shakespeare adaptation
[...] a half round wall, which is illuminated by many, many light bulbs. When later Ophelia sinks into madness and death, all the lights glow [...] Everything is reduced, sometimes concentrated. This is particularly clever when Hamlet shows Claudius, the murderer of his father, his crime, played by a puppet theatre group – here the saxophonist Stjepan Obadic is also playing, after all in this opera saxophone is used for the very first time in the history of opera. The entrance of Hamlet’s father looks, in contrast to the rather abstract execution of the tragedy, like an excursion into the ghost train [...] ironic refraction [...] All this is staged with clarity and helps to understand the story
Rainer Wagner
Opernwelt
February 2012
“permanently charged with passion”
relationships permanently charged with passion
Vjesnik
20 November 2011
“breathtaking”
The staging is breathtaking and manages to give the opera a modern and original aspect. Nothing has been overlooked. [...] This opera production justifies to take the next plane to Zagreb.
Jérémie Patrier
20 November 2011
Le Post / Le Huffington Post
(France)