Songs of Ophelia: A Performer's Guide to Shakespeare's Femme Tragique and Her Song Settings by Brahms, Berlioz, Saint-Saens, Strauss, and Heggie

Abstract

Marcel Proust once wrote, “The only true voyage of discovery…would be not to visitstrange lands but to possess other eyes, to behold the universe through the eyes of another, of a hundred others.” In doing so, he highlighted the often life-altering value of taking others’ perspectives into account. As musicians, we are fortunate to be able to take into ourselves the very words, thoughts, and motivations of composers and characters. When we do so, we view the world from a different set of eyes. When William Shakespeare created the character of Ophelia for his play Hamlet, he had a unique vision of her in mind. She was the quintessential femme tragique, a character whose life circumstances ultimately led to her tragic end. Since then, composers have turned to Ophelia as a rich wellspring of inspiration for song. They have alternately viewed her as ethereal and untouchable, realistic and grounded, or frenzied and psychotic. Whatever their stance, they have viewed the character from other perspectives and ultimately showed us different facets than we might have seen previously. The songs composed by Brahms, Berlioz, Saint-Saëns, Strauss, and Heggie portray distinct views of Ophelia. By examining each composer’s harmonic, melodic, textual, and stylistic choices, striking comparisons and contrasts may be found. Each composer wrote in different time periods and employed his own individual compositional techniques to illustrate the complex character. In taking time to observe Ophelia from each composer’s point of view, we as audiences may come to a greater understanding of this complex and enduring character.