On Screen: Hamlet (The Met)
June 30, 2022 @ 6:00 pm
| $5 – $47Orcas Center presents on the Center Stage Screen:
The Met Opera: Hamlet
Composer: Brett Dean
Thursday, June 30th – 6pm
Runtime: 3 hours and 15 minutes with intermission
Tiered Ticket Pricing: $47, $25, $5, or Pay What You Can (Minimum $5)
Orcas Center charges a $2 per ticket fee
CLICK HERE for complete information on Hamlet from The Met – Including cast sheet and synopsis
Due to contractual obligations, proof of vaccination and masking will still be required to attend shows at Orcas Center through April 18th. This is the date of the last show we have tickets sold under our current policies. Starting April 19th we will no longer check vaccine status and we will no longer have “distanced” seating.
We will require masks in the theater and in the lobby before and during shows until further notice. Masks will not be required in the Madrona Room where refreshments may be served at intermission. Masking will no longer be required in the building during the day for classes – effective immediately – to align with the public school.
Thank you for your understanding and cooperation as we continue to work to keep our artists, staff, volunteers, and patrons healthy.
Advance ticket sales only:
There will be no box office attendant prior to the performance
Private events will be allowed to set their rules around social distancing, mask and vaccination proof provided they comply with all state and county regulations
**Orcas Center’s Tiered Ticket Pricing is based on the needs of your family. The variant in pricing is not based on seat location or dates of performances, rather, what you’re able to afford to help us to maintain our facilities and create quality programming.
Tier A is the true cost per patron of putting on show at the Orcas Center, Tier B is our standard rate, also subsidized by our generous donors, Tier C is a rate subsidized by our generous donors. **
Hamlet
CLICK HERE for complete information on Hamlet from The Met – Including cast sheet and synopsis
When Australian composer Brett Dean’s Hamlet had its world premiere at the Glyndebourne Festival in 2017, The Guardian declared, “New opera doesn’t often get to sound this good … Shakespeare offers a gauntlet to composers that shouldn’t always be picked up, but Dean’s Hamlet rises to the challenge.” This June, this riveting contemporary masterpiece appears in cinemas, with Neil Armfield, who directed the work’s premiere, bringing his acclaimed staging to the Met stage. Many of the original cast members have followed, including tenor Allan Clayton in the title role. Nicholas Carter makes his Met debut conducting a remarkable ensemble, which also features soprano Brenda Rae as Ophelia, mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly as Gertrude, baritone Rod Gilfry as Claudius, and bass-baritone John Relyea as the ghost of Hamlet’s father.
ACT I
Elsinore, Denmark. King Hamlet has died, mourned by his son, Prince Hamlet of Denmark. The king’s funeral is followed fast by the marriage of his widow, Gertrude, to his brother, Claudius. Hamlet is deeply disturbed by his father’s untimely death and his mother’s “o’er hasty marriage,” a state aggravated by the appearance of King Hamlet’s ghost, informing Hamlet that he was in fact murdered by his brother, now husband to Gertrude and King of Denmark. The dead king asks that his son avenge his death by killing Claudius.
Unsure what to do and behaving erratically, Hamlet rejects his soul mate and lover, Ophelia, and dismisses his former classmates, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, whom Claudius has summoned to Elsinore to help discover the cause of Hamlet’s apparent madness.
A group of players arrives in Elsinore. Hamlet asks them to perform a scene mimicking the murder of King Hamlet by his brother. Claudius reacts violently to the performance, proof in Hamlet’s eyes of his stepfather’s guilt. Called to his mother’s chamber to explain his actions, Hamlet comes upon Claudius deep in prayer, yet finds himself unable to kill him.
Once with his mother, Hamlet hears a muffled cry and, thinking that Claudius is spying on him, runs his sword through a tapestry, killing the unsuspecting Polonius, Ophelia’s father. Hamlet then berates his mother for her shamelessness and debauchery. His father’s ghost appears, reminding Hamlet of his primary mission to avenge his death.
ACT II
Laertes, Polonius’s son, returns to Elsinore to avenge his father’s death, threatening Claudius and his kingship. Claudius manages to allay Laertes’s violence by convincing him that Hamlet is the guilty one: Together, Claudius and Laertes conspire to kill him.
Ophelia appears, apparently driven mad by Hamlet’s rejection and the death of her father. This only serves to harden Laertes’s resolve for vengeance, as does, moments later, Ophelia’s death—she has drowned in a nearby stream.
Hamlet and his friend Horatio happen upon Ophelia’s funeral, and upon learning of her death, Hamlet provokes Laertes.
Through the intermediaries Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and according to the plan concocted with Claudius, Laertes challenges Hamlet to a duel. Hamlet accepts the challenge.
Many deaths ensue.
Synopsis by Matthew Jocelyn, reproduced with the permission of Glyndebourne Productions Ltd.