1. Part I
2. Part II

Judith Howarth - soprano
George Mosley - baritone
Graeme Broadbernt – baritone, bass
Elizabeth Laurence - mezzo-soprano
Alan Oke - tenor

Chelsea Opera Group, London
Howard Williams – director

Ambroise Thomas' Hamlet was one of many attempts during the nineteenth century to adapt a Shakespearean play into a dramatic opera. Most efforts to this end met with little or no success, but Thomas' work endured at the Paris Opera until the early twentieth century. The work's premiere on March 9, 1868, was met with critical and public acclaim; audiences particularly loved Ophelia's mad scene, which Thomas had specifically adapted to the talents of the Swedish soprano Christine Nilsson. Critics hailed the opera as a masterpiece, and it was viewed as the composer's greatest work to that point. Hamlet's success came on the heels of acclaim for Thomas' Mignon, and this one-two musical punch catapulted the composer into the first ranks of French opera.

Hamlet's libretto was written by M. Carré and J. Barbier, who used as a source an 1847 stage adaptation by Alexandre Dumas père and Paul Maurice. The Dumas-Maurice libretto changes the ending of the play: Hamlet lives to be crowned king. Carre and Barbier followed this formula, which was roundly criticized -- most vociferously, and none too surprisingly, by the British. To appease his critics at Covent Garden, Thomas composed an alternative ending which makes use of Shakespeare's original scenario. Although the "happy" ending may seem a sacriligeous departure from Shakespeare, such elements were a tradition in French opera and fully expected by the public.

The rest of the opera conforms to the spirit of the original play. Thomas especially captures Shakespeare's dramatic intensity in the recitatives; Hamlet's speeches, the king's musings, and Ophelia's grief are all amplified by their spare musical treatment. Emotions and texts are set to a speech-like declamation entirely within French operatic tradition. The opera is further noteworthy for the experimental spirit of its orchestration, which introduces saxophones, cannon, and bass saxhorn into the ensemble.

Several moments in the libretto provide Thomas ample opportunity for effective scene painting. The ghost's appearance on the ramparts, Ophelia's funeral procession, and the coronation of Gertrude all allow for plenty of action, atmosphere, and pageantry. The device of a play within a play, during which Hamlet tries to trap his uncle into revealing his guilt, is an especial dramatic centerpiece. ---Rita Laurence, Rovi

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1.Mignon - Ouverture 		7:52 	
2.Mignon - Bons Bourgeois Et Notables 		1:39 	
3.Mignon - Fugitif Et Tremblant 	3:50 
4.Mignon Gipsy Dance 		7:28 	
5.Mignon Hola! Coquin! Arrête 		5:07 	
6.Mignon Philine-Laertus-Wilhelm 		5:23 	
7.Mignon Wilhelm-Mignon 		3:22 
8.Mignon Connais-tu Le Pays Ou Fleurit L´oranger 	5:43 	
9.Mignon Legeres Hirondelles 		4:12 
10.Mignon Scene 		3:11 	
11.Mignon Me Voici! Tu M´as Rachetée 		4:03 	
12.Mignon Ah! Voici Dejá Toute la Troupe Comique 		5:45 	
13.Mignon Recitativ 		1:52 
14.Mignon C´est Mignon! 		6:42 	
15.Mignon Me Voila Seule, Helas! 		5:47 
16.Mignon Adieu, Mignon, Courage! 		5:13 	
17.Mignon Entr´acte 		1:07 	
18.Mignon Elle Est la Pres de Lui! 		6:21 	
19.Mignon As - Tu Souffert! As-tu Pleure! 		3:54 	
20.Mignon Brava! Brava! Brava! 		1:47 	
21.Mignon Je Suis Titania la Blonde 		4:35 	
22.Mignon Ah! Vous Voici! 		4:17 	
23.Mignon Introduction 		5:32 	
24.Mignon C´est en Vain Que J´attends un Aveau de a Bouche 		3:25 	iTunes
25.Mignon Toi! M´aimer! Que Dis-tu? 		3:43 	
26.Mignon Trio 		6:11 	
27.Mignon Est - Ce Dieu Qui L´inspire? 		4:12 	

Francois-Louis Deschamps (Tenor) - Frederic
Genevieve Moizan (Soprano) - Mignon
Libero Luca (Tenor) - Wilhelm
Rene Bianco (Baritone) - Lothario
Janine Micheau (Soprano) - Philine
Noël Pierotte (Bass) - Jarno
Robert Destain (Tenor) – Laerte

l'Orchestre Nationale de Belgique
Georges Sebastian - conductor

Mozart's little song "The Violet," from 1785, is hardly among his most imposing pieces, yet it did help to form tip of an artistic iceberg. It's among the earliest settings of poetry by one of the world's great writers, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, whose works went on to inspire an enormous and distinguished body of music.

Goethe's poems alone led to so many songs that it might well be impossible to list them all. They include a sizeable collection by perhaps the greatest of all song composers, Franz Schubert -- a set that features what may be the most famous art song in history, "Der Erlkönig" (The Erlking).

Faust, Goethe's most famous play, may have inspired more great music than any other drama -- everything from a symphony by Liszt to a musical by Randy Newman. And Faust also provided the story, and the title, for one of the most successful French operas ever composed, the 1859 hit by Charles Gounod.

Just a few years after Gounod's Faust premiered at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris, the same city's Opéra Comique launched another new opera, also based on Goethe, that at the time was even more popular: Mignon, by Ambroise Thomas. Thomas based his opera on Goethe's novel Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship."

Thomas had already written 17 operas when Mignon appeared in 1866. Many of them were in styles reminiscent of other composers, including Rossini and Donizetti. But with Mignon, he seemed to find a style all his own. It was his biggest hit by far, and remains one of only two operas by Thomas that are likely to be heard today, along with his well-known setting of Shakespeare's Hamlet.

The librettos for both of those operas were by the same team of writers, Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, who also wrote the libretto for Gounod's Faust. The two have been roundly criticized for both Faust and Hamlet. Yet their libretto for Mignon is widely admired -- perhaps because they seemed to sense from the start that their best bet was to concentrate on the mysterious character of Mignon, rather than the title character in Goethe's novel, the student Wilhelm. --- worldofopera.org

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