Various - Franco Faccio: Hamlet

This production �offers all an Italian-opera-lover could possibly desire� wrote the FAZ after the revival of this �forgotten gem� at the Bregenz Festival. The festival continued its rediscovery series with �Amleto/Hamlet�, an opera by Verdi contemporaries Franco Faccio and Arrigo Boito, based on Shakespeare�s tragedy Hamlet. Premiered in 1865 in Genoa and restaged in 1871 at Milano�s La Scala, �Hamlet� was only revived in 2014 concertante in the US before its �triumphal rebirth� (Deutschlandradio Kultur) at the Bregenz Festival, where the opera was also recorded for the first time ever. Faccio, who conducted the first performance of Verdi�s Aida in Italy and the world premiere of Otello, and Boito, Verdi�s librettist of Otello and Falstaff, skillfully and effectively challenge the conventions of Italian opera, which they wanted to revitalize by infusing it with the spirit of Shakespeare�s drama. Anticipating the musical language of later Italian verismo composers, the opera combines lovely musical interludes with superb vocal writing. Heading a supreme cast, Pavel ?ernoch as Amleto delivers superbly, �using his colorful tenor skillfully to develop the transformation of the insecure youngling to the ice-cold avenger� (NZZ) and �granting the work large scale� (Abendzeitung). Under the baton of Paolo Carignani with the Vienna Symphoniker and Prague Philharmonic Choir �it carried terrific punch� (The Telegraph). Olivier Tambosi�s �excellent staging served it well, with a clear focus on the high points� (The Telegraph).