Rooms of Elsinore

Rooms of Elsinore was co-commissioned by the Library of Congress in Washington and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. Inspired by a visit to the so-called “Hamlet" castle of Kronborg in the Danish town of Helsingør, this work is my attempt to "fly a drone" over the play’s supposed setting, moving from room to room, reimagining the dark, covert drama of Hamlet unfolding in a real space, replete with tapestries, furnishings, concealed doors and narrow corridors. This work in seven movements is my personal summary of the intense experience of living and breathing Hamlet for several years, and was composed at a point where work on the opera was approaching completion. It was premiered by Finnish pianist Juho Pohjonen and myself in Washington, DC shortly before production rehearsals began. Using motives from the operatic score, but transferred from large orchestral and vocal forces to the forensic privacy of chamber music, we undertake a tour: from the entry point of the Dark Gate, through courtyards, private chambers and chapel, finishing atop the Trumpeter’s Tower from where we look down on where Shakespeare's bloody denouement has unfolded.