Hamlet Overture-Fantasia, Op. 67 – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Hamlet Overture-Fantasia, Op. 67 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Tchaikovsky would complete this orchestral overture-fantasia in October 1888, with the premiere performance being given in November the same year. In correspondence between Tchaikovsky and his brother Modest in 1876, it is clear that Tchaikovsky was intending to compose an overture based on the Shakespeare play ‘Hamlet’.

It is unclear whether Tchaikovsky made any significant progress, but by 1888 the actor Lucien Guitry asked for incidental music to be composed for a production of the play to be given that year. The production was cancelled, but Tchaikovsky would adapt what work he had done for the incidental music into an overture. The work would be dedicated to fellow composer Edvard Grieg, whom Tchaikovsky first met earlier in 1888 in Leipzig, the same time he would meet Johannes Brahms.

This work is comprised of a single movement.