Hamlet (opera) - Preparation of The Libretto

Preparation of The Libretto

The librettists for the opera of Hamlet, Michel Carré and Jules Barbier, were experienced: they had already provided librettos for Thomas' Mignon and also for Gounod's Faust. They chose Dumas' version of the play as the basis for their libretto. This was the version with which French audiences of the day were most familiar, and the one against which the opera would be compared and judged.

When adapting a play for opera, it was imperative to shorten and simplify. Traditionally grand opera conveys plot in broad brushstrokes; the audience is not particularly interested in its intricacies, or its detours and complexities. An uncut version of Shakespeare's play had more than 30 characters and could run for over four hours. The libretto reduced the total number of characters to fifteen (counting the four mime players required for the Play scene), and also reduced the number of subplots. Dumas had cut the scene with the sentinels Bernardo and Francisco. Gone also were Voltimand, Cornelius, Osric, and Reynaldo. Like Dumas, Fortinbras was omitted, thus there was no need to mention an invasion from Norway. Dumas omitted the subplot of Hamlet's voyage to England, so Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were also omitted, removing most of the black humor of the play. Polonius' accidental murder in Act 4 was excised, and his singing part reduced to only eight measures.

This simplification of characters and subplots focused the drama on Hamlet's predicament and its effects on Ophélie and left the opera with essentially 4 main characters: Hamlet and Ophélie, Claudius and Gertude. This constellation of roles preserved the tetradic model and the balance of male and female parts which had become established in French grand opera at the time of Meyerbeer's Robert le diable in 1831. The libretto originally specified for these roles one soprano (Ophélie), one mezzo-soprano (Gertrude), one tenor (Hamlet), and one baritone or bass (Claudius).

Other plot changes, such as making Läerte less cynical and more positive towards Hamlet early on, not only simplified the story but heightened the tragedy of their duel in the Gravediggers Scene. Making Gertrude a co-conspirator alongside Claudius, enhanced the dramatic conflict between Hamlet and Gertrude when Hamlet attempts to coerce a confession from her in the Closet Scene. Making Polonius a co-conspirator, as revealed in the Closet Scene, strengthened Hamlet's motivation in rejecting his marriage to Ophélie. This crucial change facilitated the transformation of Shakespeare's Ophelia into the opera's Ophélie, a creature who dramatically is almost entirely drawn from the 19th-century, whose madness stems not from the actions of a man who creates an intolerable situation, but rather from a man whose withdrawal leaves an emptiness she is unable to fill. Musically, of course, the Mad Scene was one of those audience-pleasing creations which drew upon well-established operatic tradition.

Another change, the addition of Hamlet's drinking song for the Players in Act 2, created another opportunity for an audience-pleasing musical number. It also led to a shortening of his instructions to them before the song and could be justified dramatically as a cover for his ulterior motive in asking them to enact the mime play. In the final scene, in another simplification of the plot, Laërte, Polonius, and Gertrude survive. As in the Dumas' play, the ghost returns at the end, but unlike in Dumas, the ghost merely banishes Gertrude to a convent for her role in the conspiracy. Finally, exactly as in Dumas, Hamlet lives and is proclaimed King.