AP News, October 23rd, 2007
Giuseppe Verdi's "Macbeth" unfolds with the intensity of an uninterrupted nightmare in the dark new production that premiered at the Metropolitan Opera on Monday night.
It makes for a grim evening in the theater, but the dramatic and musical rewards are many. Unfortunately, vocal unevenness and overacting by soprano Maria Guleghina in the role of Lady Macbeth keeps the performance from having the impact it might.
The production, by former Royal Shakespeare Company artistic director Adrian Noble, sets the action in post-World War II Europe. The witches become modern-day bag ladies, twirling pocketbooks as they utter prophecies. Malcolm, son of the murdered king Duncan, hops on a Jeep before the crucial battle scene. The single curved set with movable pillars and a forest backdrop allows fluid scene changes from the battlefield to interior rooms in Macbeth's castle.
Best of all, the lighting by Jean Kalman reinforces the claustrophobic, unnatural world in which the action takes place. The witches' faces are eerily illuminated by flashlights inside their purses; Macbeth, contemplating the murder of Duncan, lies on the ground with a single bulb shining down on him; even the bright chandeliers in the banquet hall scene are harsh and garish, rather than festive.
Guleghina's problems are evident right from her opening Letter Scene, which in Noble's production has her sprawled in bed. She attacks Lady Macbeth's music with all the fearlessness one could ask for, but years of singing taxing roles like this have taken a toll, and she begins to wobble and shriek as she rises toward high C. The runs and trills built into the role are little in evidence, and the high D-flat that ends the Sleepwalking Scene is punched out, rather than whispered as Verdi wanted.
One is willing to settle for less than Shakespearean-caliber acting in the opera house, but Guleghina's approach at times borders on camp. She drew an unfortunate laugh when, after Macbeth tells her he plans to continue his murder spree by having Banquo killed, she threw her arms around his neck and too-eagerly asked: "Where? and When?"
In the title role, baritone Zeljko Lucic fared better. He has the vocal heft of a true Verdi baritone and his portrayal of Macbeth as a man driven by demons beyond his control is persuasive. Some of the best singing came from tenor Dimitri Pittas, who brought sweet-toned fervor to Macduff's aria grieving for his slain family. Bass John Relyea made a sonorous Banquo while he lived, and a menacing ghost afterward.
The chorus has several wonderful opportunities to shine in this opera and made the most of them.
"Macbeth," composed in 1847 and revised 18 years later, is Verdi's earliest adaptation of a Shakespeare play, and it's a far less polished work than his two late masterpieces, "Otello" and "Falstaff."
No matter. Met music director James Levine conducted the orchestra with evident admiration for its many haunting qualities and not a hint of apology for the less-sophisticated passages in the score.
The last Met production of "Macbeth," by Sir Peter Hall, was widely derided and abandoned nearly 20 years ago. This one drew some boos for its creators at the final curtain call but is likely to fare better when audiences grow accustomed to its unsparing bleakness and the Met gets luckier with its Lady.
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