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[Met Performance] CID:352126

New Production

Macbeth
Metropolitan Opera House, Mon, October 22, 2007
Broadcast

Debut : Raymond Renault, Adam Hauser Piñero, Joseph Turi, David Crawford, Adrian Noble, Sue Lefton







This was a Pension Fund performance
Broadcast live on Sirius Metropolitan Opera Radio
Streamed live at metopera.org
Macbeth received eleven performances this season
Production photos of Macbeth by Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera.

FUNDING:
Production gift of Mr. and Mrs. Paul M. Montrone
Additional funding provided by Mr. and Mrs. William R. Miller, Hermione Foundation and The Gilbert S. Kahn and John J. Noffo Kahn Endowment Fund

Review 1:

Review of David Shengold in the January 2008 issue of OPERA NEWS

On October 22, James Levine returned to Verdi's uneven, sublime "Macbeth" with a magisterial reading, in a dark but ultimately rather prosaic production by Adrian Noble, former artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, in his house debut. Noble's best work came with the chorus, radically improved in sound by the recent advent of chorus master Donald Palumbo, and fully invested in the drama, whether as quotidian, markedly British witches - resembling Monty Python lower-middleclass "old dears" and "little luvs" - or irregular soldiers evoking Bosnia or Nagorno-Karabakh. Noble also worked profitably with Zeljko Lucic, new to the company as Barnaba in last season's "La Gioconda." The Serbian artist may lack a distinctive timbre, and occasionally he flatted top notes, but in an age of "Kavalierbaritons" with big ambitions and played-out veristo barnstormers, what a pleasure to encounter a genuine Verdi baritone. Lucic sang with intelligent phrasing and an admirable piano-based technique. His resigned, legato-anchored "Pietà, rispetto, amore" was, with the chorus's searing "Patria oppressa," the emotional high point of the evening. (In general, the Met's new "Macbeth" followed Verdi's 1865 revision of the score, with the exception of the ballet, which was omitted.)

Lucic's expressivity through soft dynamics contrasted with the high-decibel, frustrating assault on Lady Macbeth's punishing music by Maria Guleghina. Guleghina does command some attributes of this tough role and she has been known to improve markedly during the course of a run. The sheer volume and soaring top had their exciting moments, and some florid passages worked surprisingly well. More often, however, the soprano swallowed vowels, left out syllables and musical line endings and broke up phrases for questionable "parlando" effects. Moreover, though she evidently had worked hard with Noble to develop the character, what emerged was a set of appliqué effects: now she stood on the bed, now she crept along a row of chairs, now she rolled on the floor. (Please, let's get the Met's divas off the floor!) On [the first] night, Guleghina's hearty theatrics never seemed internalized, least of all in a mad scene also quite distressingly sung, her support collapsing as she went along. Mark Thompson's black-and-white gowns made her look sensational, but the shoulder-less red dress for the party scene - a "veddy" 1950s British embassy assemblage - did the Russian soprano's impressive figure a serious injustice.

Noble's staging was crammed full of all kinds of extra-musical noise - yelling in the fight scenes, stage sprinklers, glib courtiers' applause for Duncan over his whimsical little march. Thompson's intriguing black set, with a gray rotunda with adjustable pillars and a raked playing area, could be used again for Montsalvat in "Parsifal." A huge, cloud-swept moon and fevered skies loomed above timeless blasted trees. Less timeless, an army jeep patrolled the Scottish border. Jean Kalman's lighting proved more daringly angled than typical Met designs but was somewhat compromised by an overused revolving lamp that stole focus from the principals and shone in the audience's eyes.

The promising young tenor Dimitri Pittas showed very little presence as Macduff - he needs to develop a float to be audible as the stirring Act I finale begins - but his major aria, well-sung in a somewhat monochrome but healthy, bright tenor, won a big ovation. John Relyea, in his second new Met production in less than a month, sounded like a highly competent, musical house-bass in a part calling for a big, rolling sound like that of Jerome Hines or Nicolai Ghiaurov. Noble handled the murder scene creatively, with Banquo lured into a false sense of security by former comrades; but through no fault of the dutiful Relyea, the bloody appearances of the dead Banquo were singularly unconvincing. Russell Thomas sounded first-rate in Malcolm's limited duties; Elizabeth Blancke-Biggs gave the Lady-in-Waiting a distinct vocal and dramatic profile.

"Macbeth" is highly welcome back after twenty years; the house's last production, by Peter Hall, got better with pruning and recasting, and the new one marks, if no triumph, a clear improvement, with genuine heroes in Lucic, Levine, Palumbo - and Verdi.

Review 2:

Robert Hofler in Variety

The scary history of the Scottish Play extends to opera, at least, the Metropolitan Opera. "Macbeth" was, after all, the vehicle that, due to sked problems, got Maria Callas fired by general manager Rudolph Bing in 1959. The follow-up production, directed by Peter Hall in his company debut, saw him booed off the stage in 1982. And a few seasons later, that same ghastly staging inspired one audience member to jump to his death from the balcony. How nice to report that the curse has finally been lifted with Adrian Noble's new staging.

Not everyone at Monday night's premiere would agree with that assessment. There was some booing amidst the applause, but then the Met audience is a pretty conservative crowd and doesn't like its Verdi masterpieces updated, transplanted or otherwise reinterpreted in any radical fashion.

Noble's "Macbeth," according to production notes, places the action "in a non-specific post-World War II Scotland," which, in fact, looks more like some fascisto Slavic state. And to reinforce that interpretation, we have Zelijko Lucic and Maria Guleghina singing the two lead roles. They are a great Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, but, before we hear a note from them, the opera dictates that the witches entertain us for more than a few bars.

The question of what to do with the witches must drive any opera director to distraction. Shakespeare's words are all sinister darkness, but Verdi gives them a jaunty, almost impish, spin. Noble follows Verdi, and, in his most audacious move, conjures up a troupe of macabre-looking housewives, with kids in tow, wielding big plastic purses as weapons of minor, if not mass destruction.

Costume and set designer Mark Thompson sets these shrews, as well as everything else to come, against a unit set of scraggly, leafless trees with a bottomless black sky above. If Roald Dahl had directed "Macbeth," this is what he might have done.

Elsewhere, the updates meet with variable success. The sumptuously costumed banquet is a ball worth attending, but somehow contempo army fatigues never quite mesh with the music. Then again, Noble avoids making the battle scenes look downright ridiculous – a possible first at the Met – and Lucic may be the only operatic Macbeth ever to fell an opponent by executing a pretty lethal jump- kick.

Where Noble's interpretation truly illuminates the opera is in his work with Lucic, who only last year made his Met debut in "La Gioconda." Not to detract from Guleghina's sizable achievement here, but this "Macbeth" restores the center of the opera to its rightful place, which is Macbeth himself.

Too often Lady Macbeth's showy arias dominate, and Verdi certainly gives her most of the night's showstoppers. Guleghina doesn't disappoint. She is an unstinting performer, and if every piece of coloratura isn't exactly in place in her open*ing "Vieni! t'affretta!," she delivers a note perfect "Brindisi" – at turns, ferocious, amusing and heartbreaking.

Lucic breaks ranks with most Macbeths to offer exceptionally introspective, elegantly sung Macbeth. The choristers may be right when they call him a "monster” but he's a tragic monster. When pressed, Lucic can punch up the volume to match Guleghina, but more often he impresses by being unafraid, as well as perfectly capable, to sing on a whisper of despair.

Elsewhere the opera hinges on only a couple of voices and John Relyea presents a sturdy Banquo while, Macduff, Dimitri Pittas, impresses with his exceedingly bright tenor.

The singers are the life blood of "Macbeth," conductor James Levine sets those juices boiling with a fiery interpretation.

Sets and costumes, Mark Thompson; lighting, Je Kalman; choreography, Sue Lefton.

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Met careers

• James Levine [Conductor]
• Zeljko Lucic [Macbeth]
• Maria Guleghina [Lady Macbeth]
• John Relyea [Banquo]
• Dimitri Pittas [Macduff]
• Russell Thomas [Malcolm]
• Elizabeth Blancke-Biggs [Lady-in-Attendance]
• James Courtney [Physician]
• Richard Hobson [Manservant]
• Raymond Renault [Duncan]
• Adam Hauser Piñero [Fleance]
• Keith Miller [Murderer]
• Joseph Turi [Herald]
• David Crawford [Warrior]
• Ashley Emerson [Bloody Child]
• Anne-Carolyn Bird [Crowned Child]
• Adrian Noble [Production]
• Mark Thompson [Designer]
• Sue Lefton [Choreographer]
• Jean Kalman [Lighting Designer]