Russian Hamlet

[michelle]

Currently doing my PhD on Hamlet in Russian/Soviet music and arts, I wonder if anyone has information on 1954 theatre production of Kozintsev, the visuals and the music of Shostakovich...which number for which scene?...
thanks

[Delicious Manager]

Kozintsev's play (and subsequent film) makes a few changes to the order of events and cut or amalgamated certain of Shakespeare's original scenes, therefore making it hard (without seeing the film - which I haven't) to assign specific scenes to musical numbers. Shostakovich's complete score comprised 23 numbers, only 8 of which made it into the suite - and not entirely keeping the order of the play's/film's action intact. This is all I can offer at the moment:

Act 1, Scene 1
1. Overture (No 1 in the Suite: after the death of the king, as Hamlet gallops home and the drawbridge is raised.
(Shakespeare's opening scene is omitted by Kozintsev and replaced by the Overture and the following musical numbers)
2. Military Music; 3. Royal Fanfare: showing the emptiness of the new regime.

Act 1, Scene 2
4. The Palace Ball (No 2 in the Suite); Hamlet's monologue - "How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable"
5. The Story of Horatio and the Ghost (although in Shakespeare's play, Horatio sees the ghost in Scene 1)

Act 1, Scene 4
6. The Ball

Act 1, Scene 5
7. The Ghost (No 3 in the Suite): the ghost reveals itself as Hamlet's father's spirit

Act 2, Scene 2
8. Hamlet's Parting from Ophelia
9. Palace Music
10. The Arrival of the Players (No 6 in the Suite)
11. Monologue – "What a rogue and peasant slave"

Act 3, Scene 1
12. Hamlet's Monologue – "To be or not to be"

Act 3, Scene 2
13. Royal Fanfare
16. Poisoning Scene (No 5 in the Suite)
17. The Flutes Play

Act 3, Scene 4
14. In the Garden (No 4 in the Suite)
15. Booth Fanfare

Act 4, Scene 1 – omitted by Kozintsev

Act 4, Scene 5
18. Ophelia's Descent into Madness (Song of Ophelia)
19. Ophelia's Insanity

Act 4, Scene 6 – omitted by Kozintsev

Act 4, Scene 7
20. Death of Ophelia (No 7 in the Suite)
21. Hamlet at Ophelia's Grave
22. The Cemetery

Act 5, Scene 2
23. The Duel – Death of Hamlet – Hamlet's Funeral (No 8 in the Suite)

[TerraEpon]

The majority of the music is from the 1932 version, with only a couple new additions
There's a very good recording of it all on this disc: http://www.amazon.com/Shostakovich-Hamlet-King-David-Wilson-Johnson/dp/B0006BGXIG/

And as it's suggested in the tracklist, the music is completely unrelated to the later film score.

[Patrick Murtha]

The film, by the way, is staggeringly good, certainly one of the most inspired cinematic versions of Shakespeare, taking full advantage of the medium. Kozintsev made a film of King Lear as well, which I haven't been lucky enough to see yet.