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Title: A Gorgeous Opera with a Superb Cast!
Review: This is definitely one of the most overlooked operas, which should be entered into the standard repertory. Thomas composed rich orchestration to compliment the vocal part and the singer's (Hampson, Anderson, Graves, and Ramey) bring the art of French Opera to life. Hampson, especially, brings out the nuances within the music and is perfectly legato throughout! Although, the Spectre infernale, is a bit slower than I was used to hearing/performing it...I fell that it definitely brings out the mystery of Hamlet speaking to his father's ghost for the first time. Being the only recording of the Complete opera available, I highly recommend this for opera lover's! It also contains the London version, in the appendix where they demanded that the original ending of Shakespeare's play be honored...whereas the original French version, has Hamlet becoming King in the end creating a happy ending, as was common of French Grand Opera at the time.
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