THE fact that Thomas' opera' Hamlet' includes a ballet is of itself sufficient evidence that Shakespeare is treated with rather scant dignity in the libretto. But at the time when it was composed, an Opera without a Ballet would have had no chance of success on the Paris stage, and this was for many years one of the most popular works in the repertory there. It contains much of Thomas' finest and most tuneful music, and though it is now seldom played in its complete stage form, parts of it are often heard. It was first produced in Paris in 186,8, and London heard it a year later, in Italian, at Covent Garden. It has one feature which was unusual in its own day ; Hamlet, the hero, is a Baritone instead of a Tenor, as tradition was wont to demand.