The opera was premiered on 30 May 1865 at Genoa's Teatro Carlo Felice.
The cast included some of the finest singers of the day, including Mario Tiberini in the role of Amleto.
According to DeRensis, the work was accepted at the Carlo Felice because of the personal intervention of Boito's Conservatory professor Alberto Mazzucato, who was friends with Mariani.
While Ashbrook notes that the general reaction was "dismay at the score's paucity of melody", he does add that Ophelia's funeral march, the "Marcia Funebre", "[won] general approval".
While both of Faccio's operas failed to achieve success, the critics were unanimous in their praise of the promise shown in the young composer and, the following contemporary accounts, the audience appears to have shown its pleasure at what they had heard.

On 31 May, the Gazzetta di Genova wrote:
The opera was generally applauded at the end of the first act, at Ofelia and Amleto’s duet, at the finale of the second act, at Ofelia’s canzone in the third, and at the funeral march of the fourth.
The young maestro was called to the stage many times.

That same day, the paper Movimento wrote:
The expectations were high for the premiere, because doubt had circulated the reputation of the new type of music attempted by the young maestro.
The public therefore rushed in great numbers and with an attitude of one who wishes to judge with circumspection, and, let us also say, with severity.
But from expectations of doubt they changed their mind, and after having waited to think about it, a decision was made; they applauded and applauded with spontaneity, with conscience, with enthusiasm.

Barrese provides "a more personal, if not more biased account [which] comes from Mazzucato and was sent to Faccio’s teacher Stafano Ronchetti-Monteviti.
The long letter was published in full in the “Giornale della Società del Quartetto” and in Franco Faccio e Verdi, DeRensis reprints the following selections":
Amleto... aroused unusual and profound emotions in the Genovese public, which celebrated your distinguished student with every type of flattering reception.
The curtain-calls for the maestro and the performers were unanimous, insistent, continuous, and ever warmer as the imaginative work unfolded before the eyes of the listeners who were highly surprised with the truth of its conception, the newness of form, the passion of the melodies, the ensemble harmony, and of the robust skill that dominates the whole score.

[...] As long as we see young Italians give as their second work a creation as serious and strong as that of Amleto, rest assured, my dear colleague, that Italian art is nowhere near death.
Amleto’s victory was legitimate, and I am happy because I see in it a new consecration of our ideas, and you must be doubly happy for it, and for the triumph of these ideas, and for the pleasure of having educated a powerful talent like Franco Faccio in the Italian art.

Giuseppe Verdi, when he heard of the success of the opera, wrote to the librettist Francesco Maria Piave stating that, "if Faccio succeeds, I am sincerely happy; others will perhaps will not believe this; but [only] others; you know me and you know that I either keep quiet or say what I feel".
The opera was premiered on 30 May 1865 at Genoa's Teatro Carlo Felice. The cast included some of the finest singers of the day, including Mario Tiberini in the role of Amleto. According to DeRensis, the work was accepted at the Carlo Felice because of the personal intervention of Boito's Conservatory professor Alberto Mazzucato, who was friends with Mariani. While Ashbrook notes that the general reaction was "dismay at the score's paucity of melody", he does add that Ophelia's funeral march, the "Marcia Funebre", "[won] general approval". While both of Faccio's operas failed to achieve success, the critics were unanimous in their praise of the promise shown in the young composer and, the following contemporary accounts, the audience appears to have shown its pleasure at what they had heard.
On 31 May, the Gazzetta di Genova wrote:
The opera was generally applauded at the end of the first act, at Ofelia and Amleto’s duet, at the finale of the second act, at Ofelia’s canzone in the third, and at the funeral march of the fourth. The young maestro was called to the stage many times.
That same day, the paper Movimento wrote:
The expectations were high for the premiere, because doubt had circulated the reputation of the new type of music attempted by the young maestro. The public therefore rushed in great numbers and with an attitude of one who wishes to judge with circumspection, and, let us also say, with severity. But from expectations of doubt they changed their mind, and after having waited to think about it, a decision was made; they applauded and applauded with spontaneity, with conscience, with enthusiasm.
Barrese provides "a more personal, if not more biased account [which] comes from Mazzucato and was sent to Faccio’s teacher Stafano Ronchetti-Monteviti. The long letter was published in full in the “Giornale della Società del Quartetto” and in Franco Faccio e Verdi, DeRensis reprints the following selections":
Amleto... aroused unusual and profound emotions in the Genovese public, which celebrated your distinguished student with every type of flattering reception. The curtain-calls for the maestro and the performers were unanimous, insistent, continuous, and ever warmer as the imaginative work unfolded before the eyes of the listeners who were highly surprised with the truth of its conception, the newness of form, the passion of the melodies, the ensemble harmony, and of the robust skill that dominates the whole score.
[...] As long as we see young Italians give as their second work a creation as serious and strong as that of Amleto, rest assured, my dear colleague, that Italian art is nowhere near death. Amleto’s victory was legitimate, and I am happy because I see in it a new consecration of our ideas, and you must be doubly happy for it, and for the triumph of these ideas, and for the pleasure of having educated a powerful talent like Franco Faccio in the Italian art.
Giuseppe Verdi, when he heard of the success of the opera, wrote to the librettist Francesco Maria Piave stating that, "if Faccio succeeds, I am sincerely happy; others will perhaps will not believe this; but [only] others; you know me and you know that I either keep quiet or say what I feel".
Amleto