Diapason d’Or
February 2020
Vidéo

International Opera Awards
2020
Nominated - Complete Opera Recording

Gramophone Magazine
April 2020
DVD of the Month

Stéphane Degout (Hamlet), Sabine Devieilhe (Ophélie), Laurent Alvaro (Claudius), Sylvie Brunet-Grupposo (Gertrude), Nicolas Legoux (Polonius), Julien Behr (Laërte), Jérôme Varnier (Ghost of Old Hamlet), Yoann Dubruque (Horatio), Kevin Amiel (Marcellus)
Orchestre des Champs-Elysées, Choeur Les Eléments
Louis Langrée, Cyril Teste

With Shakespearian operas all the rage in Paris during the 19th century, Ambroise Thomas and his librettists Michel Carré and Jules Barbier adapted Hamlet to create a romantic spectacle in which the

character of Ophélie shines with a haunting radiance. With its virtuosic arias, stunning ensembles and vivid orchestration – with the colourful addition of the newly invented saxophone – Thomas composed one of the most successful operas in the French repertoire. This is further enhanced by director Cyril Teste’s multi-layered production, reinstating its powerful original ending, and including cinematic techniques to create ‘a very palpable hit’ (bachtrack.com)

Picture format: NTSC 16:9

Sound format: AC3 2.0 and DTS 5.1

Subtitles: French, English, German, Japanese, Korean, Chinese

"[Degout] gives one of his greatest performances here, marvellously sung and acted...it’s an extraordinary achievement. Devieilhe makes an outstanding Ophélie, touching and vulnerable, her coloratura dazzlingly precise but never vacuously showy...Langrée really knows how to make this music live and breathe, and the playing, choral singing and recorded sound are all exemplary...Buy it and watch it, above all for Degout, who is unmissable and unforgettable." - Gramophone Magazine, April 2020.