speech of hamlet's ghost

THE SPEECH OF HAMLET’S GHOST

Had the speech of Hamlet’s Ghost been shorter
Hamlet might have listened to the Ghost,
the play about him cut down to a quarter,
with Hamlet quickly making Claudius toast.

They say that brevity’s the soul of wit.
If you’re as prolix as the Ghost of Ham-
let or the most long-winded Holy Writ,
you may ignore laws like, “Do not eat ham.”

Inspired by Mozart’s thoughts expressed while composing the music to Idomeneo, quotedin an article by Dennis Pajot on Mozart forum.com, “Mozart and Shakespeare's The Tempest,” by Dennis Pajot, and used in a previous poem, “Tempus Fugit”:

In 1790 the Weimar courtier Friedrich Hildebrand von Einsiedel sent an adaptation of the Shakespeare work he made into an opera libretto to his friend, the poet Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter in Gotha. For several years this work, to be known as Die Geisterinsel was worked on by Gotter, and eventually became known as his work. As early as Mach 24, 1791 Gotter wrote to Einsiedel that Heinrich Beck (an actor friend of Gotter) recommended Mozart as composer of the libretto. But on April 7, Beck wrote to Einsiedel that he did not think Mozart would be interested, as "he composes everything for Vienna where German opera is not given, only Italian opera". Beck recommended Dittersdorf for the job. A month later Gotter tells Einsiedel he spoke to another actor friend of his [Schröder] , who also thought Mozart had too much work for the opera buffa, and thought Dittersdorf "would not measure up to a subject of this sort". Schröder recommended Christian Friedrich Gottlieb Schwenke of Hamburg. Word was spreading, for on October 31, 1791 the Göttingen poet Gottfried August Berger wrote his pupil August Wilhelm Schlegel of Gotter's "marvelous free adaptation" of The Tempest and that "Mozart is composing the piece". Three days later Gotter wrote Einsiedel the piece was almost ready to be sent to Mozart: "After a joint revision of the work, a letter, with the first act, goes immediately to Vienna". However it is clear Mozart did not confirm he would set the libretto to music: "We may with certainty be allowed to anticipate a prompt and obliging answer from Mozart...In the unhoped-for case, however, that he is overburdened with work, I would be in favor of Reichard above all"….

An interesting letter from Gotter on March 2, 1793, might help us imagine some problems that might have come about between Mozart and the poet. Karl Dittersdorf had been sent a draft of the libretto in late 1792. He sent some suggestions for revisions back to Gotter. Gotter wrote "The suggestion of Herr von Dittersdorf for shortening the opera betrays too clearly the children of what kind of spirit are the insipid poetic products that for some time now he has thought to compose and to send into the world to the exasperation of good taste". With this we must keep in mind Mozart's dealings with some of his librettists, especially those with Giambattista Varesco regarding Idomeneo. And keeping in mind that Gotter was unhappy with Dittersdorf's suggestions for shortening his opera, here is Mozart's thought on one Shakespeare moment, in regard to Idomeneo:

"Imagine yourself in the theatre, and that the voice must be terrifying--it must be terrifying--it must be penetrating--and one must believe that it is real--how can this be believed, when the speech is too long, for during this time the hearer will become increasingly sure that it is meaningless? If the ghost's speech in Hamlet were not so long it would have a better effect.--This speech can easily be made shorter and will gain more by it than it will lose". Possibly Gotter and Mozart might have clashed, but of course there is no way of knowing.

1/18/10
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