Ballet Notes
Hamlet
June 1 – 10, 2012
Presented by
Piotr Stanczyk and
Sonia Rodriguez
as Hamlet and Ophelia.
Photo by Christopher Wahl.
Orchestra
Celia Franca, C.C., Founder
George Crum, Music Director Emeritus
Karen Kain, C.C.
Kevin Garland
Artistic Director
Executive Director
David Briskin
Rex Harrington, O.C.
Music Director and
Principal Conductor
Artist-in-Residence
Magdalena Popa
Lindsay Fischer
Principal Artistic Coach Artistic Director,
YOU dance / Ballet Master
Peter Ottmann
Senior Ballet Master
Mandy-Jayne
Richardson
Senior Ballet Mistress
Aleksandar Antonijevic, Guillaume Côté,
Greta Hodgkinson, Jiří Jelinek, Zdenek Konvalina*,
Heather Ogden, Sonia Rodriguez, Piotr Stanczyk,
Jillian Vanstone, Xiao Nan Yu, Bridgett Zehr*
Kevin D. Bowles, Lorna Geddes, Tomas Schramek,
Hazaros Surmeyan
Keiichi Hirano, Tanya Howard+, Stephanie Hutchison,
Etienne Lavigne, Patrick Lavoie, Elena Lobsanova,
McGee Maddox, Stacey Shiori Minagawa,
Tina Pereira, Jonathan Renna, Rebekah Rimsay,
Robert Stephen, Brett van Sickle
Jordana Daumec, Naoya Ebe, Chelsy Meiss,
Alejandra Perez-Gomez, Jenna Savella
Danyla Bezerra, Ryan Booth, Skylar Campbell, Adji Cissoko,
Shaila D’Onofrio, Krista Dowson, Nadine Drouin, Jackson Dwyer,
Giorgio Galli, Selene Guerrero-Trujillo, Emma Hawes,
Juri Hiraoka, Kathryn Hosier, Rui Huang, Lise-Marie Jourdain,
James Leja, Alexandra MacDonald, Elizabeth Marrable,
Ji Min Hong, Shino Mori, Tiffany Mosher, Andreea Olteanu,
Brendan Saye, Christopher Stalzer, Joseph Steinauer,
Dylan Tedaldi, Nan Wang, Aarik Wells, Sarah Elena Wolff
RBC Apprentice Programme / YOU dance: James Applewhite,
Jack Bertinshaw, Esabelle Chen, Daniel Cooke,
Francesco Gabriele Frola, Larissa Khotchenkova,
Miyoko Koyasu, Lisa Lanteri, Nayara Lopes, Asiel Rivero.
Lorna Geddes
Joysanne Sidimus
Pointe Shoe Manager / Guest Balanchine
Assistant Ballet Mistress Répétiteur
Ernest Abugov
Jeff Morris
Shelby-Jai Flick
Stage Manager, YOU dance
Violas
Angela Rudden, Principal
• Theresa Rudolph Koczó,
Assistant Principal
Valerie Kuinka
Johann Lotter
Beverley Spotton
Larry Toman
Cellos
Maurizio Baccante,
Principal
Olga Laktionova
Andrew McIntosh
Marianne Pack
Elaine Thompson
Paul Widner
Basses
Hans J.F. Preuss, Principal
• Paul Langley
Robert Speer
Cary Takagaki
Flutes
Leslie J. Allt, Principal
Maria Pelletier
• Shelley Brown, Piccolo
Oboes
Mark Rogers, Principal
Karen Rotenberg
Lesley Young,
English Horn
Clarinets
Max Christie, Principal
• Emily Marlow
• Gary Kidd, Bass Clarinet
Bassoons
Stephen Mosher, Principal
Jerry Robinson
Elizabeth Gowen,
Contra Bassoon
Stage Managers
*Guest Artist
+Maternity Leave
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Violins
Benjamin Bowman
Concertmaster
Lynn Kuo,
Assistant Concertmaster
Dominique Laplante,
Principal Second Violin
James Aylesworth
Jennie Baccante
Csaba Koczó
Sheldon Grabke
• Xiao Grabke
Nancy Kershaw
Sonia Klimasko-Leheniuk
Yakov Lerner
Jayne Maddison
Ron Mah
Aya Miyagawa
Wendy Rogers
Filip Tomov
Joanna Zabrowarna
Paul Zevenhuizen
national.ballet.ca
Horns
Gary Pattison, Principal
Vincent Barbee
• Derek Conrod
Scott Wevers
Trumpets
Richard Sandals, Principal
Mark Dharmaratnam
Robert Weymouth
Trombones
David Archer, Principal
Robert Ferguson
• David Pell,
Bass Trombone
Tuba
Sasha Johnson, Principal
Harp
Lucie Parent, Principal
Timpany
Michael Perry, Principal
Percussion
Mark Mazur, Acting
Principal
Kristofer Maddigan
Orchestra Personnel
Manager and Music
Administrator
Jean Verch
Assistant Orchestra
Personnel Manager
Raymond Tizzard
Librarian
Lucie Parent
Extra Players
Hiroko Kagawa, Violin
Rory McLeod, Acting
Assistant Principal Viola
Tom Hazlitt, Bass
Colleen Cook, Bass
Clarinet
Michele Gagnon, Horn
Andrew Chappell, Bass
Trombone
Andrei Streliaev, Piano
Edward Connell,
Keyboard
• On Leave of Absence
The 2011/12 season is presented by
Friday, June 1 at 7:30 pm
Thursday, June 7 at 2:00 pm and 7:30 pm
Saturday, June 2 at 2:00 pm and 7:30 pm
Friday, June 8 at 7:30 pm
Sunday, June 3 at 2:00 pm
Saturday, June 9 at 7:30 pm
Wednesday, June 6 at 7:30 pm
Sunday, June 10 at 2:00 pm
Presented by
Hamlet
A ballet by Kevin O’Day after William Shakespeare
Choreography: Kevin O’Day
Staged by: Rolando D’Alesio
Music: John King
Set and Costume Design: Tatyana van Walsum
Lighting Design: Mark Stanley
Dramaturgy: Vivien Arnold
Répétiteurs: Lindsay Fischer and Mandy-Jayne Richardson
Conductor: David Briskin, Music Director and Principal Conductor
Premiere: Stuttgart Ballet, October 3, 2008, Stuttgart, Germany
The National Ballet of Canada Premiere: June 1, 2012, Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.
The National Ballet of Canada is grateful to Mona & Harvey Levenstein for their generous support
of Hamlet.
Guillaume Côté
as Hamlet.
Photo by Christopher Wahl.
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The Cast
Hamlet,
The Prince
Guillaume Côté (June 1, 3, 6, 8)
Naoya Ebe (June 2 mat, 7 mat, 9)
Piotr Stanczyk (June 2 eve, 7 eve, 10)
Claudius,
The King, Hamlet's Uncle
Jiří Jelinek (June 1, 3, 6, 8)
McGee Maddox (June 2 mat, 7 mat, 9)
Keiichi Hirano (June 2 eve, 7 eve, 10)
Gertrude,
The Queen, Hamlet’s Mother
Stephanie Hutchison (June 1, 3, 6, 8)
Alejandra Perez-Gomez (June 2 mat, 7 mat, 9)
Lise-Marie Jourdain (June 2 eve, 7 eve, 10)
Ophelia,
Polonius’ Daughter
Heather Ogden (June 1, 3, 6, 8)
Elena Lobsanova (June 2 mat, 7 mat, 9)
Sonia Rodriguez (June 2 eve, 7 eve, 10)
Laertes,
Polonius’ Son
McGee Maddox (June 1, 3, 6, 8)
Brett van Sickle (June 2 mat, 7 mat, 9)
Giorgio Galli (June 2 eve, 7 eve, 10)
Polonius,
The King’s Councillor
Jonathan Renna (June 1, 3, 6, 8)
Patrick Lavoie (June 2 mat, 7 mat, 9)
Brett van Sickle (June 2 eve, 7 eve, 10)
Horatio,
Hamlet's Friend
Brendan Saye (June 1, 3, 6, 8)
Giorgio Galli (June 2 mat, 7 mat, 9)
Robert Stephen (June 2 eve, 7 eve, 10)
Rosencrantz,
Hamlet's boyhood Friend
Robert Stephen or Jonathan Renna or
Skylar Campbell
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Guildenstern,
Hamlet’s boyhood Friend
Christopher Stalzer or Dylan Tedaldi
Two Travelling Dancers
Elena Lobsanova and Naoya Ebe (June 1, 6, 10)
Jillian Vanstone and Robert Stephen (June 2
mat, 8, 9)
Jordana Daumec and Dylan Tedaldi (June 2
eve, 7 eve)
Jenna Savella and Skylar Campbell (June 3,
7 mat)
A Gravedigger
Kevin D. Bowles or Etienne Lavigne
Osric,
A Courtier
Peter Ottmann or Kevin D. Bowles
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Court
Kathryn Hosier or Sarah Elena Wolff,
Alexandra MacDonald or Juri Hiraoka,
Shino Mori or Shaila D’Onofrio,
Ji Min Hong or Tiffany Mosher
Ryan Booth or James Leja,
Nan Wang or Aarik Wells,
Giorgio Galli or Christopher Stalzer or
Jackson Dwyer, Dylan Tedaldi or
Skylar Campbell or Joseph Steinauer
Running Time
ACT I – 44 minutes
Intermission – 20 minutes
ACT II – 1 hour 2 minutes
The performance will run approximately 2 hours
6 minutes.
Hamlet
Guillaume Côté
Piotr Stanczyk
Naoya Ebe
Synopsis
Act I
Hamlet’s father King Hamlet is dead, murdered
by his own brother – Hamlet’s treacherous
uncle Claudius – in Hamlet’s absence.
Claudius has claimed the throne and married
Queen Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother.
Hamlet mourns at his father’s grave;
memories of his father return to him. He
knows that his father would expect him to
avenge his death. Hamlet’s friend Horatio and
the sentinels seek Hamlet out; they believe
to have seen Hamlet’s dead father.
At court, Claudius is celebrating his
marriage to Gertrude. Hamlet’s boyhood
friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
welcome him back. Claudius’ councillor
Polonius is also present, with his son Laertes
and his daughter Ophelia, Hamlet’s secret
love. Hamlet observes the court and is
disgusted by their behaviour and the entire
situation.
Laertes receives permission from the King
and Queen to travel abroad. Ophelia is warned
by her father Polonius and her brother Laertes
not to respond to Hamlet’s wooing; being a
prince, he is destined to marry someone else.
Laertes bids farewell to his father and his
beloved sister Ophelia and departs.
Hamlet seeks Ophelia out in order to give
her a love letter. Although she knows that she
should avoid Hamlet, Ophelia gives in and
accepts the letter. Hamlet seeks comfort in
Ophelia’s arms but Ophelia knows she is being
watched by her father.
To discover what Hamlet’s intentions are,
Claudius sends Polonius as well as
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to feel him out.
Getting no results, Claudius tries to provoke
Hamlet by openly flaunting his new relationship
with Hamlet’s mother.
Hamlet finds himself more and more
isolated. His thoughts circle continuously
around his father and whether he can – or even
wants to – avenge his death. Exhausted, he
meets Ophelia who has been sent by Claudius
and her father to spy on Hamlet. Hamlet, who
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feels betrayed by all around him, brutally
rejects Ophelia.
Hamlet knows that he must make a
decision: to act or not to act. He returns to his
father’s grave.
Act II
Wishing to expose Claudius, Hamlet invites
the court to a party which Claudius and
Gertrude also attend. Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern have supplied Hamlet with two
travelling dancers whom Hamlet instructs to
imitate the murder of his father by Claudius.
Claudius realizes that Hamlet is accusing him,
abruptly ends the party and dismisses the court.
Claudius wrestles with his guilt. Hamlet,
finding Claudius alone, intends to use the
moment to avenge his father but is interrupted
by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
In the meantime, Polonius has convinced
Gertrude to speak to Hamlet while he
eavesdrops on the conversation. Hamlet
comes to his mother; they argue and
Polonius, who has hidden himself, believes
Hamlet will hurt the Queen. He intervenes
and is killed by Hamlet who has mistaken him
for Claudius. Over his dead body, Hamlet
confronts his mother about her behaviour.
Gertrude realizes that it is impossible to be
loyal to Hamlet and Claudius at the same time;
mother and son reconcile.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, sent by
Claudius, discover Polonius’ body and try to
detain Hamlet. He eliminates them both. Horatio
removes Hamlet from the scene of the crime.
Due to Hamlet’s rejection and his murder
of her father, Ophelia has lost her mind.
Gertrude and Claudius attempt to help her,
but she is beyond their reach. Gertrude
cannot bear the sight of the deranged girl.
Left alone, Ophelia commits suicide.
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Unsuspecting, Laertes returns home from
his travels. He finds first Ophelia’s, then his
father’s body. Claudius informs him that
Hamlet is responsible for their deaths and
conspires with Laertes to avenge them.
Hamlet and Horatio, on their way back
to court, meet a gravedigger who is digging
a grave. A funeral procession interrupts their
conversation; Hamlet realizes that the corpse
is Ophelia’s. Laertes wants to avenge his
father’s and sister’s deaths immediately, but
Claudius holds him back. Hamlet mourns
Ophelia.
Claudius calls for a duel between Hamlet
and Laertes. He has prepared Laertes’ foil
with poison so that even a slight wound will kill
Hamlet. Horatio attempts to dissuade Hamlet
from fighting.
Claudius offers the winner of the duel a
pearl of great value. Hamlet makes the first
hit. Claudius urges him to drink from a goblet
of poisoned wine, which Hamlet declines.
When Hamlet makes the second hit, Claudius
again offers him the wine. Gertrude, who has
become suspicious, drinks the wine while
toasting Hamlet. Horrified, Claudius attempts
to stop her. Laertes, knowing that Claudius’
treachery will soon be uncovered, attacks
Hamlet from behind and wounds him with
the poisoned sword. Enraged, Hamlet fights
back and in the thick of the fight, Laertes
drops his sword and picks up Hamlet’s.
Hamlet notices Gertrude’s distress and tries
to go to her but is forced by Laertes to keep
fighting. Grabbing Laertes’ poisoned sword,
he stabs him with it. Gertrude dies and
Laertes accuses Claudius. Hamlet kills
Claudius. As he dies, Laertes absolves Hamlet
of Ophelia’s and Polonius’ death. Hamlet begs
Horatio to remember his story for posterity
and dies.
Kevin O’Day’s Hamlet –
The Imprint of the Father on the Son
In his production of Hamlet, choreographer
Kevin O’Day used as his starting point the
idea that sons have, for better or worse, a
"genetic imprint" from their fathers from which
they can’t free themselves, and that a father’s
influence and his expectations shape the
thoughts and actions of the son.
It is no coincidence that Shakespeare
names Hamlet after his father. The ghost of
Hamlet Senior commands Hamlet to avenge
his death but Shakespeare makes it very clear
that, if left to himself, Hamlet would do no
such thing. Shakespeare also makes very
clear that Hamlet and his father had very little
in common: King Hamlet was a warrior king,
forever off fighting battles, a man of action.
Hamlet is the exact opposite: a thinker, an
observer, a wit, an intellectual whose mental
capacity is so enormous that he is an isolated,
lonely figure towering above the other
characters. Hamlet may have admired his
father; he certainly didn’t love him.
And so Hamlet faces a dilemma: to act or
not to act; to avenge his father’s death or not.
In confronting his father’s mortality, he
confronts his own; in trying to fulfill his father’s
expectations of him, he must ultimately ask
himself who he is and what he believes in. In
the end, he goes into the duel knowing it has
been rigged and that he will die. By doing this
he defies his father’s expectations because he
(Top photo) Kevin O’Day in rehearsal.
(Bottom left photo) Guillaume Côté and
Kevin O’Day.
(Bottom right photo) Piotr Stanczyk and
Kevin O’Day.
Photos by Bruce Zinger.
will not live to kill Claudius and take back the
throne. Ironically, Hamlet does end up killing
Claudius, but in a fit of rage because Claudius,
in trying to kill Hamlet, has brought about the
deaths of Gertrude and Laertes. In this way,
Hamlet does fulfill his father’s expectations
but through impulse rather than premeditated
action. No matter how much a son tries to free
himself of his father or believes that he is free
of his influence, the father will always appear
in some part of the son’s actions or thoughts.
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Hamlet in Rehearsal
Photos by Bruce Zinger.
Guillaume Côté and
Heather Ogden.
Piotr Stanczyk, Kevin O’Day
and Guillaume Côté.
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national.ballet.ca
Heather Ogden
Hamlet
Act III, scene 1
by William Shakespeare
To be or not to be – that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And, by opposing, end them. To die, to sleep –
No more – and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to – ’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep –
To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there’s the rub,
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. There’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
Th’ oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of th’ unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country from whose bourn
No traveler returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pitch and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry
And lose the name of action.
Piotr Stanczyk and
Sonia Rodriguez
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