We have a true rarity from OperaDelaware on this week’s Sunday Opera (11/24 3:00 p.m.) with Franco Faccio’s 1865 opera “Amleto” which was faithfully based on the play by William Shakespeare. “Amleto” was the second of only two operas written by Faccio, the first being “The Flemish Refugees,” and neither was positively received, but since 2004, “Amleto” has made a resurgence. In this performance, you’ll hear Joshua Kohl in the title role, Sarah Asmar is Ofelia, Lara Tillotson, Tim Mix as Claudio, Matthew Vickers as Laerte, Harold Wilson as Polonio, Justin Hopkins as Orazio, and Ben Wagner as the ghost of Hamlet’s father.
We’ll continue with music thematically linked to Shakespeare with Tchaikovsky’s Hamlet Fantasy-Overture, and the sequel to Berlioz’s “Symphony Fantastique” entitled “Lelio, ou le retour a la vie,” a piece for narrator, soloists, and chorus with orchestra. This is about a young man who is trying to kill himself due to a failed relationship through an opium overdose causing him to have hallucinations based on the works of Shakespeare.
