The late- and post-Soviet trials of Hamlet in song, ballet, and opera

Abstract

With the (re-)tightening of censorship, a proliferation of subtexts and Aesopian messages may be detected in late-Soviet Shakespeare adaptations in general and Hamlet in particular. This article examines representative cases of responses to Hamlet in the late- and post-Soviet eras, taking the genres of song, ballet, and opera/theatre, and broadly mapping them on to the topics of, respectively, Individualism, Convention, and Politics. In setting forth a narrative of Hamlet adaptations in these periods, this article shows that the tension between individual creative activity and politico-cultural climate was and continues to be more complex and multifaceted than might be predicted.