BBC Music Magazine
April 2025
Opera & Stage Choice

Roberta Mameli, Le Concert de L’hostel Dieu, Franck-Emmanuel Comte

Carcani: Ambleto, Act II Scene 9: Son sdegnato (e son geloso)
Gasparini: Ambleto, Act I Scene 8: Nella mia sfortunata prigionia
Hasse, J A: Sinfonia No. 6 in G Minor, Op. 5
Handel: Ambleto, Act III Scene 2: Tu indegno sei dell’allor
Gasparini: Ambleto, Act I Scene 6: Stelle, voi che de’ regnanti
Carcani: Ambleto, Act I Scene 12: Segui ad amar costante
Scarlatti, D: Sinfonia in D Minor
Scarlatti, D: Ambleto, Act I Scene 8: Nella mia sfortunata prigionia
Pollarolo: L'Ambleto, Act III Scene 6: D’ire armato il braccio forte
Gasparini: L’Ambleto, Overture in C Major
Gasparini: Ambleto, Act II Scene 6: Cinto d’amiche rose un dì crescea
Carcani: Ambleto, Act II Scene 5: Più fido non poss’io
Gasparini: Ambleto, Act I Scene 7: Tromba in campo e spada in guerra

Ambleto is a fascinating curiosity in music history: a baroque libretto by Apostolo Zeno on the legend of Hamlet, not based on Shakespeare's tragedy but on its primary source, the Gesta Danorum by Saxo Gramaticus.

This swashbuckling drama has been first set to music by Francesco Gasparini (Venice 1705) - whose version served as the basis for a pasticcio (London 1712) with arias by various composers including Handel - then by Domenico Scarlatti (Rome 1715) and Giuseppe Carcani (Venice 1743).

The surviving arias from these lost operas are brought back to life by the Concert de l'Hostel Dieu and the charismatic soprano Roberta Mameli, who lends her supple voice to the titular Danish Prince and to the strong women around him, his courageous lover Veremonda (Shakespeare's Ophelia) and his tormented mother Gerilda (Gertrude).