Hamlet, third time at Marseille Opera House: matinée Sunday Oct 2nd.

It was the opening of my season 16-17 at Marseille Opera House.
Although I had already seen this Vincent Boussard production of Ambroise Thomas when it was created at the same place six years ago with the same Patrizia Ciofi in Ophélie, then nearly the same cast in the same production  two years ago in Avignon, but Hamlet was the Canadian tenor J-F Lapointe, so handsome and perfect singer for this role, and Gertrude is this time a great mezzo soprano I had not seen as often as I would have liked to, the brilliant Sylvie Brunet-Grupposo, plus The conductor Lawrence Foster I appreciate very much, so I made up my mind to travel to Marseille and see this production for the 4th time! In fact it is not a bad production at all and the more I see it the more I appreciate it!
Hamlet here is not following Shakespeare 's play entirely. Ambroise Thomas with his librettists Carré and Barbier   made some changes: Polonius is only Claudius's partner in crime, Ophélie's brother does not die, Gertrude goes to a 'nunnery' ! and Hamlet becomes King at the end. The political aspects of the play have no echo in the opera drama. So, really one comes to A. Thomas's Hamlet for the music and singing, not for Shakespeare...or perhaps for the hero Hamlet with his 19th century romantic looks? (yet he was an Elisabethan character ). There are two endings for the drama, for a French audience Thomas wrote a 'happy' ending: the one I always saw, Hamlet right at the last scene, while discovering he is on Ophelie's tomb, is proclaimed King of the Danes. For an English audience the ending was different and the hero Hamlet died.
Yesterday, it was the best one out of the four, and I was  happy I came...
Here is my contribution as a faithul admirer of the Photographer Christian Dresse. His Hamlet photos are amazing!(as always because he  does the photos of all the opera productions in Marseille).
(one spectacular photo I would have raved to take: when  the tall Hamlet- J-F Lapointe picks up the mousy Ophélie-Patrizia Ciofi, it was such a lovely sight!)
On the music front it was sumptuous: our orchestra now under Maestro Lawrence Foster guidance has reached an incredible level. In  a score which has instrument solo such as the 'angel ' horn, called the English horn, for a beautiful aria (doute de la lumière, which is the Love leit-motiv), yesterday's rendition sounded tremendous, very moving indeed, without the singing. So when Patrizia Ciofi goes into her great aria in act IV  which is such a delicate'madness' aria, I felt she was really tear-jerking, although perhaps not at the top as she had been vocally  in 2010 but dramatically so right in her composition. To be fair Hamlet-Lapointe and her  make such a trendy couple together: 'small and beautiful ' with 'tall and elegant'!
The singers were all fantasic yersterday, I could not say one was better than the other... perhaps on the seduction front for voices and looks, Hamlet is winning? His great scene, for me,  his meditation, was splendid, each word so well shaped and uttered... pure poetry with music and orchestra under a true connaisseur of this score: Lawrence Foster.
In the end, I think the conductor is the winner and his amazing orchestra too...
I wonder why Marseille Opera does not decide to make a dvd out of these four renditions of theopening of the season? This cast which is a very good mixture of well-known singers plus local ones and young ones, with future prospects, is just what a listener like me will always enjoy. In fact these are the good ones who keep the opera alive in regional France. They are the best artists in the world  and should be thanked and honoured !