Plácido DOMINGO
Hamlet
Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
 62857 - Available on CD |
Sony Classical announces the release of the original motion picture soundtrack to Kenneth Branagh's film of Hamlet, which reunites the actor-director with composer Patrick Doyle, the Academy Award® nominated composer of scores for Sense and Sensibility (SK 62258) and both of Branagh's other Shakespeare film adaptations. The Hamlet soundtrack was released December 10, and the film opened in limited release on Christmas Day, 1996.
As he did with Henry V and Much Ado About Nothing, Branagh both directed and adapted this film version of William Shakespeare's play, and he also plays the title role. The cast includes Kate Winslet as Ophelia, Julie Christie as Gertrude and Derek Jacobi as Claudius, as well as Richard Attenborough, Billy Crystal, Judi Dench, Gerard Depardieu, John Gielgud, Rosemary Harris, Charlton Heston, John Mills, Rufus Sewell and Robin Williams. Unlike previous film versions of Hamlet, Branagh's film utilizes the complete text of the play.
On the soundtrack, tenor Plácido Domingo sings Patrick Doyle's original song "In Pace", set to a Latin text from The Book of Wisdom and weaving the themes Doyle created for Hamlet and Ophelia. It is heard as a funeral elegy for Hamlet himself. In the liner notes he wrote for the soundtrack recording, Branagh noted that Doyle had "...attempted the most difficult of things for an artist -- simplicity... I think he has succeeded superbly well."
The actor-director also emphasized that he wanted the film to reflect the quest for joy and happiness rather than the gloom that pervades Hamlet's character. "When afforded a glimpse of those things that occasionally inspire Hamlet -- love, friendship, the theatre -- I wanted the music to soar with Hamlet's temporary optimism and hope," Branagh wrote. "It seems to me that, through his score, Patrick has realised a very fine musical response to the play. It has lifted the rest of our work in a way I could scarcely hope for, and I thank him for his remarkable talent."
Doyle was a 1995 nominee for the Oscar®, Golden Globe and British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards for his original score for Sense and Sensibility. The film's original motion picture soundtrack recording on Sony Classical also made history with its chart-topping success as one of the few movie soundtrack recordings to climb the Billboard Classical Crossover chart.
Doyle began his career as an actor with Branagh's Renaissance Theatre Company and soon became the company's composer and musical director. In 1989, he made his film debut with his original score for Branagh's Henry V, winning the Ivor Novello Award for Best Film Theme. His score for Branagh's Dead Again won him a Golden Globe nomination, and the two have also collaborated on Much Ado About Nothing and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Doyle's other film credits include Indochine, Into the West, Needful Things, Carlito's Way, and Mrs. Winterbourne.
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