Hamlet

Jost interprets Shakespeare's tragedy as the 'story of a surreal trip into the inside'. In his version, Hamlet is sung by a female voice. Thus, Jost hints at universal validity beyond individual fate. Hamlet's long and painful search for truth and understanding is a reflection of the basic existential dilemma of someone who has been deprived of all security. 'This insecurity is increased and becomes the real subject of the opera by the fact that Hamlet is literally "dissolved" as a character at decisive points in the opera: in his reflective monologues, choral voices take over his text. These choral parts expand the space of the eponymous hero and distort the time structure of the immediate action by speeding up the plot-propelling moments and presenting them in a heightened tempo while the monologues, carried by an inner tension, establish themselves as quiescent islands in the overall structure.'  (Christian Jost)