October 2, 2012 | Theatre,

Check out these films, books and music related to HAMLET

FILMS

Hamlet (2000)

Michael Almereyda’s modern day version of Hamlet cunningly reimagines Shakespeare’s tragedy with contemporary New York City as the stand-in for Denmark; Hotel Elsinore is the headquarters for the Denmark Corporation, Fortinbras’ armies are lawyers and ‘the play within the play’ is a video montage created by Hamlet to catch the King. Alternately callow and world-weary, Ethan Hawke brings his trademark slacker angst to his role as the tormented young Dane. Hamlet has been played by so many older thespians it’s compelling to see a young actor inhabit the role. Edgy and lean, Time Out London pronounced, “Almereyda modernises and streamlines without trivialising, and amplifies poetic melodrama with regular ingenuity and energy.”

Hamlet  (1964)

Staged in the style of a dress rehearsal with street clothes and minimal set pieces, John Gielgud directed this taped version performed in front of a live audience based on Richard Burton’s highly successful Broadway run. Filmed in black and white, the picture quality is not the best, but the sound is impeccable; one can hear Burton’s unforgettable voice perfectly. Although he made his career in Stratford, Burton only did one Shakespeare film (Franco Zeferelli’s The Taming of the Shrew), so this is a rare chance to witness his complete mastery of the Bard.

Hamlet  (1948)

Winner of both the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Actor, Lawrence Olivier adapted, directed and starred in what many consider to be the definitive version of Hamlet. However, Olivier did make some controversial cuts including the characters of Fortinbras, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and emphasized the possible Oedipal undertones between Hamlet and his mother (though Olivier himself was 40 when he played the role while Eileen Herlie in the role of Gertrude was only 28!) The exquisite Jean Simmons appeared as the fragile, doomed Ophelia in her only Shakespearean role on film. The great Pauline Kael said of Olivier’s version: “Whatever the omissions, the mutilations, the mistakes, this is very likely the most exciting and most alive production of Hamlet you will ever see on the screen.”

BOOKS

Will & Me: How Shakespeare Took Over My Life by Dominic Dromgoole (2007)

ArtsEmerson is thrilled to bring Hamlet to Boston directed by The Globe’s Artistic Director, Dominic Dromgoole; for insight into how he came to love the Bard, pick up Will & Me: How Shakespeare Took Over My Life—part compulsively readable autobiography and part illumination of what Shakespeare can tell us about ourselves and the world that The Guardian praised as “funny and fluent.”

Shakespeare After All by Marjorie Garber (2005)

Looking for the perfect companion to Shakespeare’s plays? Try Harvard Professor Marjorie Garber’s wonderfully rich but accessible Shakespeare After All, which provides a tour through the entire canon in chronological sequence. Based on her immensely popular lectures, this work is both meticulous and engaging. The New Yorker proclaimed that “Garber is appealingly undogmatic… her introduction is an exemplary account of what is known about Shakespeare and how his work has been read and regarded through the centuries, while the individual essays display scrupulous and subtle close reading.”

 

Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare by Steven Greenblatt (2005)

For a more in-depth perspective on Shakespeare’s life, try Steven Greenblatt’s Will in the World. Greenblatt, another Harvard Professor, evokes Elizabethan England in brilliant detail along with the narrative of the Bard’s journey from Stratford-Upon-Avon to London and from actor to the greatest playwright in history. According to Publisher’s Weekly, “this wonderful study, built on a lifetime’s scholarship and a profound ability to perceive the life within the texts, creates as vivid and full portrait of Shakespeare as we are likely ever to have.”

 

MUSIC

Come, Gentle Night: Music of Shakespeare’s World: Ensemble Galilei (2000)

For anyone who enjoys the sweet yet melancholy sound of Elizabethan music, check out the interpretation of the Ensemble Galilei, inspired by 16th century composer Vincenzo Galilei, a major figure of the late Renaissance. While no record exists of the exact music of the Bard’s day, the six women of Ensemble Galilei blend historically informed early music with a lush folk sound. According to The Washington Post “the sextet revives the music in its own fashion, relying on an unusually colorful assortment of instruments…plus a genuine flair for balancing idiomatic expression with improvisational zest.”

Shakespeare in Song: Phoenix Bach Choir (2004)

Renamed the Phoenix Chorale, this Grammy Winning, 27-voice chorus is considered one of the finest professional choral ensembles in America. Under the direction of Charles Bruffy, this collection sets Shakespeare’s words to modern classical music from 20th century composers such as Matthew Harris and Vaughn Williams. Andrew Achenbach of Gramaphone has cheered, “Choral singing just doesn’t get much better than this.  When it comes to purity of tone, daunting precision and superfine blend, Charles Bruffy’s remarkable Phoenix Chorale have it all—and then some!”

Tchaikovsky: Hamlet – Overture and Incidental Music (2003)

When he was asked to write some incidental music for a theatrical production of Hamlet, Tchaikovsky decided to finish the piece even after the performance was cancelled. Utilizing the same approach he used for his Romeo & Juliet fantasy overture, Tchaikovsky focused less on the plot and more on the emotional elements of the play, conjuring both the darkness of Hamlet’s psyche and the poignant heartbreak of Ophelia. Geoffrey Simon leads the London Symphony Orchestra on this stellar recording.