Alexi Matchavariani’s “Hamlet’s” Worldwide Recognition
By Mariam Chanishvili
Tuesday, June 8
Famous Georgian composer, Alexi Matchavariani, born on 23 September 1913 in Gori, is a pioneer of modern music in Georgia. His creative production comprises a broad spectrum, including chamber music, romances, seven symphonies, operas, and ballets. He has received received the Golden Medal of Braidense Cultural Center in Milan for the music of ‘Othello’( the prize, which has also been received by Prokofiev and Shostakovich). Othello has been described as Shakespeare with electricity by New York Times and as a universal work by Journal Musical Francais: …’Othello’ and Alexi Matchavariani’s score is a stunning dramatic pulse – sinuous, barbed, bombastic, and tender in turn. …it’s Shakespeare with electricity.
In 1960, Matchavariani started working on another important piece- Hamlet- an opera in two acts. Opera Hamlet, which has, unfortunately, never been staged in Georgia, has received remarkable reviews worldwide.
Vakhtang Matchavariani has decided to present the opera through the suites, created from the orchestral episodes,which he has performed worldwide; the performance has created the urge to see the music score and study the piece more thoroughly.
Shakespearean International Yearbook in London published an extensive article by Michelle Assay, Professor, Ph.D., at the Sorbonne University in Paris and Doctor of London Royal Music Academy: “Hamlet in Soviet / post-Soviet Operatic Afterlife. Between Individuality and Political Allegory.”
“Machavariani considered Othello to be “full of human emotions and the power of love,” whereas “Hamlet is a problem of existence, and a feast of life and mind over the mediators of death and darkness”; in other words, he saw Hamlet as a more philosophical statement… Machavariani’s task, then, was to balance three ideals: his personal understanding of the drama, the contemporaneity of his musical language, and the integrity of Shakespeare’s text…”
In December 2020, an online conference was organized by the Universities of Manchester and Huddersfield with the support and patronage of the Royal Academy of Music of England, called "Shakespeare in Music" New Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Inaugural Online Conference of the Shakespeare and Music Study Group. Alexi Machavariani's opera Hamlet was highlighted and the conference was attended by Ms. Michel Assay; Founder and Chair of Shakespeare and Music International Study Group (RMA).
“Hamlet” is the opera finished by A. Machavariani in 1979, which has not been performed anywhere for 41 years, despite the fact that offers for staging were made by Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg and others. After considering the offers, the author firmly stated that he had created this opera in Georgian and that it had to be performed in Georgian for the first time.
“In the 80s and 90s of the last century, it was difficult for theater leaders to grasp the essence of the first Georgian musical drama, which was unusual for them, and which can be compared to the opera of the genius Alban Berg Wozzeck (but in the Georgian spirit) through musical and technological language. I am glad that this time the management of our theater has expressed a desire for Hamlet to be performed, especially since the director Andrei Konchalovsky admires the music of the opera and happily agreed to stage an opera in Tbilisi in Georgian,” said conductor and composer Vakhtang Matchavariani.
Alexi Matchavariani’s works have been published in a full format by Sikorski Music Publishing Group, which is an international music publishing company from Hamburg.
The publishing group has only published works of two Georgian composers in a full format – Alexi Matchavariani and Giya Kancheli.
