Hamlet

Hamlet was billed as an opera in five acts with music by Ambroise Thomas, a libretto by Michel Carré and Jules Barbier, and choreography by Lucien Petipa. Its sets were by Rubé and Chaperon (a. 1, 5), Cambon (a. 2), and Despléchin (a. 3, 4). It had its premiere at the Imperial Academy of Music on 9 March 1868, and it enjoyed an extraordinary success from every point of view. Financially, it surpassed the operas being presented at the same time, and the receipts it returned to the box office did…