Shakespeare operas

Adams talks with host Barbara Bogaev about how he turned a five-act play into a two-act opera—which scenes got the hook, new lines written in the style of the Bard, and what Shakespeare may have thought of the play’s characters.

Composer Brett Dean and librettist Matthew Jocelyn talk about adapting Hamlet to create an opera that subverts expectations and takes audiences inside the minds of Hamlet and Ophelia.

It’s not easy to turn a Shakespeare play into an opera, says Colleen Fay. Too many words, too many characters, and too many plots. But sometimes, when it all comes together, a great opera can bring the essence of Shakespeare’s stories sharply into focus.