#Hamlet in Rock

[marvelousmop]

You Should Watch "Hamlet in Rock"

One odd musical I really like to talk about and expose to people is "Hamlet in Rock" - a Rock Opera adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet, made in Germany but sung in English with lyrics ripped straight from the play (but shuffled around a bit so it fits the conventions of a song, i.e. having a chorus).

You can watch it here (or alternatively there's this version which includes explanatory cards between scenes if you're a bit lost on what the plot is), the whole thing is just delightfully hammy (no pun intended). You're not going to get a good performance of Hamlet, but you will get a fun one featuring some good rock songs (though sometimes quite odd musically if you're familiar with how the characters are meant to sound) and the most bizarre costumes and props you could get for a production of Hamlet.

Seriously, look at our boy Hamlet, he looks like he just got done with his day job as a Kingdom Hearts villain. The glass sword he's seen wielding later in the play doesn't help matters.

Here are some more weird fun things from this version of Hamlet that I just want to list off (mild spoilers below the cut).

Here are some more examples of bizarre costuming in this production:

And the piece de resistance:

They make these guys (the theatre troupe) stand still in these poses for a whole song, by the way, it's great. You can tell by the end that the one in the front really regretted choosing a pose where he had to keep smiling with his arm up for 3 minutes.

As alluded to earlier, a lot of the songs in here seem like the composers didn't quite know the meaning of some of the less important-seeming words that inform tone (which is understandable given most of the people here are German). Examples include:

"Taken to Wife" with lyrics about Claudius marrying Gertrude, but sung like a power metal ballad for some reason

Polonius in general gets an oddly intense performance considering he's meant to be an old man who talks a bit too much (this is more of a problem in the earlier song "I Do Not Know")

There's of course the inevitable slightly tonedeaf "To Be or Not to Be" song which I'll cut them some slack for since that monologue is hard to nail

"You're Sister's Drowned" makes the unfortunate choice to make the chorus "Your Sister's Drowned! Alas then, she is drowned. x2"... Granted, I'm not sure what other phrase you could repeat as a chorus in that scene, but it's not exactly the most poignant exchange the Bard wrote, and definitely not one worth repeating three times.

Finally, there's nothing actually wrong with this bit, I just think the way he says "Murder" is funny:

[ladycharles]

My first soundtrack album, Oh Boy! is out now! It is for a disco version of Hamlet (seriously) and I drew inspiration from ELO, David Bowie, Abba, of Montreal, Late of the Pier, Rod Stewart (yes), Bee Gees, Kate Bush and even a little Eno, Nine Inch Nails and Philip Glass (half the album is instrumental score and it's the weird half).

(If you don't wanna hear some out there instrumental score skip to track 2 😅💖)

Other streaming or buying links 👇🏼

[theghooligan]

alicent *externally*: i’m fine, i promise—

alicent *internally*:

[undergroundrockpress]

David Bowie, 1974.

Photo: Bob Gruen.

[bishonenspit]

Keiko Takemiya Kaleidoscope - Original illustration for "Rock Musical Hamlet"

[katiekatdragon27]

Starting the year strong with a chaotic whiteboard with the homies.

Gigi: Why are you, as a man, wearing a bow?

I like to think Glisten and Gigi have severe attitudes towards each other. Not out of hatred or anything, but akin to siblings who always talk shit lol. Also cuz I like to think Gigi is sometimes a pain and gets a kick out of it.

Style testing with Glisten, Pebble, Hamlet, and Shimmer lol. It was fun drawing looser, it's freeing.

I doodled way more, but these were my faves (More below the cut):

Whatever, go my middle-aged women yuri. (Yes, I ship these two. Yes, the reasoning is just as thin as my reasons for shipping shinyshrimp. No, I do not care and will continue to be cringe til the day I die)

I recently got Flutter, and when people know how to avoid the distractor, she's really fun to play! Her ability is especially fun. And also, can't start the year without my shinyshrimp drawings. I made them busts, Zynt gave them legs, and Pasta was going to bully me about it, but that was a fatal mistake on his end.

Some drawing of @pastastrainer's host being the gay icon he is<3 (he likes being tagged), and 4x because it was requested by a friend, and I miss them they mean a lot to me.

Expect more to come, I might do more whiteboards they're really fun.

Have a good one folks!!

[the-gardenview-family]

Do you guys have any other siblings? Or is it just you two?

Both: Hmmm....

Shimmer: I think Toodles counts. Kinda. (Uncle Rodger, Dad, and Toodle's relationship is hard for me to explain...) Hamlet: Does Pebble count?

Shimmer: Pebble? Hamlet: Uh- Yeah. Shimmer: Like... dog Pebble? Hamlet: Obviously! Who else could it be? Shimmer: ... But he's a dog- Hamlet: He's like a sibling to me, okay?! Be nice. Shimmer: Ooookaaaayy... I guess he counts too. Kinda... sorta...

[a-chaotic-dumbass]

watched hamlet 1948 recently.... she is cersei lannister... to me...

[chaotic-neutral-knitter]

listen. sometimes you read a book and the main character is a rock. like literally a rock in the ground. and you finish the book and have to sit there like "I guess I love this rock now."

(the book is The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie)

[ladycharles]

Oh Boy track by track part 2 - Hands (Hamlet context dump incoming)

"Oh Boy" the play is a twisted disco version of Hamlet that unfolds in small town Ontario, and so "Hands" is a track that is about my impression of Claudius, in this case renamed Colonel Uncle Arvin by Kosta, the playwright.

Arvin/Claudius is portrayed as a military man, his kingdom a disco bar (Colonel Uncle Arvin's Family Style Restaurant and Dancehall) in small town Ontario rather than all of Denmark. He is deeply inhibited, brutish, scheming, and prone to emotional outbursts that he barely masks with a deep cynicism.

This song was composed for his entrance - a dance solo. He is a limbering, awkwardly masculine dancer and so I wanted the track to feature an uneven rhythm despite the rigid 4/4 of disco - hence the chorus bassline actually comes in before the drums instead of being locked in, creating a sense of pulling against the beat as if to wrest control of the rhythm like the feelings of anger and anxiety driving him.

And so the lyrics too follow the theme of his internal conflict. I know anxiety and panic, and the song recounts the feelings of being controlled by anxiety, the "commotion" being the loss of control of a meltdown or panic attack.

Men like Arvin do not wear their emotions on their sleeve, so I couldn't make it direct. Instead I tried to write as the older, more inhibited generations do - using poetic language to obscure the meaning. This is the realm of "feeling like a shadow/drifting like a leaf*" not "I spend my waking hours haunting my own life/I made the one I love start crying tonight**"

The track was mixed and edited by Mark Plati, who produced David Bowie's Earthling and Toy albums and who I actually saw play guitar for him when I was 13 and had the luck of seeing Bowie in Toronto. He is an incredibly talented musical mind and much like Erin Tonkon did to my other tracks he worked some magic to where it really came alive compares to my rough mix. It's amazing being able to have these experienced and brilliant hands on deck, and I learned a lot from both of them.

An example of Plati's work with Bowie - check out the explosion of the chorus, what a dynamic track. Loved this one in my youth.

*Move On - Bowie

**Spiteful Intervention - of Montreal

[city-of-all-tunas]

hamlet and horatio in iii.ii

Horatio: i am at your service, sweet lord Hamlet: horatio, no man i've ever spoken with can compare to you Horatio: (bashfully) aw shucks mate Hamlet: this isn't me complimenting you!! i get nothing from it cause all you've got is your good spirits. no money and that's...that's important, right? i repeat, this is not me flattering you. you understand? it's just that,, my soul chose you to have for herself. you, who is strong throughout life's ups and downs. i hold you in my heart—well, actually, in my heart of heart, very near and dear. Horatio: ... Hamlet:(blushing furiously) no homo, now help me avenge my father Horatio: as you wish

[eightspringdays]

I picked up my wip after like two weeks and I can see all the things I need to fix but the main question is still in the air. Do I add this softcore scene even if the contribution to the plot is like. 10%? Maybe less? Or I just take it out even when I really really like it... ª 😔🔫

[scribefindegil]

& of course the obvious corollary to that last post is: if you do change, you're still what you say you are. It's about the autonomy and the self-determination. You've gotta respect your friends who are rocks and only ever want to be rocks and also your friends who used to be rocks but discovered they really love being giant swarms of mosquitoes!

[fotos-art]

Rocks in the Verzasca River near the hamlet of Lavertezzo in the Valle Verzasca of Switzerland

© Robert Seitz

Offset by Shutterstock

In just a few months it'll be warm enough to perch for a while on this smooth river rock, dangle your feet into the water, and take in this gorgeous Swiss scenery. We're here in the Valle Verzasca, a valley in Ticino, Switzerland, close to the Italian border. There in the near distance is the tiny hamlet of Lavertezzo, where most everyone speaks Italian. Tourists normally flock to this area in warm summer months to swim and snorkel in the Verzasca River's famous turquoise waters and to jump off the 17th-century double-arched bridge known as the Ponte dei Salti (Bridge of Jumps). The very, very brave bungee jump off the nearby Contra Dam, made famous in the 1995 James Bond film 'GoldenEye.'

[autoboros]

Which of your ocs is most likely to eat a bug.

Oh, S, without a doubt. Auto has had to tell her off about this more than once