L’Amleto d’Arrigo Boito : deux versions énigmatiques avec Ducis et Dumas en dialogue

• Main Author: Costantino Maeder
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Maison de la Recherche en Sciences Humaines 2013-04-01
• Series: Revue LISA
• Subjects: translation; writing; Libretto; opera; Shakespeare
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/lisa/4308

The 19th century is characterized by the rediscovery of Shakespeare. In this article, we will trace one complex example of Shakespeare’s reception in France and in Italy. Hamlet had been translated and adapted for the stage and for the opera several times. However, from the very beginning of the 18th century, authors like Ducis simply rewrote from scratch totally unauthentic versions which (mis)guided most French and Italian reception of Shakespeare. In the 19th century, Dumas offered a new and far more interesting interpretation which would be even more seminal for Latin Europe. Arrigo Boito’s Amleto dialogues in a rather astonishing and surprisingly modern way with the Dumas version of Hamlet, taking into account the more recent translations by François-Victor Hugo and Paul Meurice. As a result, the tragedy of the Danish prince is completely rewritten and deconstructed. As is often the case, Boito prefers to be the dwarf that sees farther than the giant, when he has the giant’s shoulder to mount on. By slightly changing Shakespeare and Dumas and reversing Ducis he is able to offer a completely new, autonomous tragedy that probably owes more to Shakespeare than many other adaptations and translations, as was later to be the case for his Otello and Falstaff.