About the work
Ambroise Thomas' grand opera in five acts after Shakespeare's tragedy was written to a libretto by Michel Carré and Jules Barbier, based on Alexandre Dumas' and Paul Meurice's 1847 French stage adaptation. It premiered on 9 March 1868 at the Paris Opéra.
Plot
Prince Hamlet learns from his murdered father's ghost that King Claudius, his uncle and stepfather, was the killer, and swears revenge. As Hamlet wavers between doubt and resolve, his growing coldness drives Ophélie into madness and death; in the end, Hamlet kills Claudius before the assembled court.
Cultural significance
Unlike in Shakespeare, Hamlet survives in the original Paris version and is proclaimed king; for the London premiere in 1869, Thomas composed an alternative ending in which the title character dies instead. Ophélie's mad scene, with its extended coloratura aria, remains a celebrated showpiece of the soprano repertoire.