Death of Ophelia

“She floated, still singing,” Shakespeare wrote of Ophelia in her sweet and gentle madness,. “Singing like a water-sprite / Born amidst the waves.” Berlioz set these lines from Hamlet in his haunting “La mort d’Ophélie” (“The Death of Ophelia”) from 1842, a piece that has long entranced mezzo-soprano Laura Krumm.

“The very present piano part and the fact that the vocal line only goes to forte twice set such a powerful mood,” she says. “In those moments I see the frustration and despair of Gertrude simmering under the flowing water.”