Reviewed by James
Karas
The Glimmerglass Festival,
on the shores of Lake Otsego, near Cooperstown, New York, is delivering four
major opera productions for its fortieth season. They are Verdi’s Macbeth,
Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Vivaldi’s Cato in Utica and Leonard
Bernstein’s Candide.
The Women in
"Macbeth." Photo: Karli Cadel/The Glimmerglass Festival
Director Anne Bogart
shows what a fertile imagination and intelligence can do with an old chestnut
and not one of Verdi’s best operas, Macbeth.
As the orchestra starts playing the overture, we see some women near the stage
as other women go down the aisles greeting each other. They are working class
women, wearing hats and carrying bags. All twelve get on the stage and we
realize that they are the witches.
In the first scene in
Macbeth’s castle, they emerge wearing servants’ clothes. They are the maids in
the Macbeth household. No wonder they know so much about the Macbeths. When
Lady Macbeth finishes reading the letter from her husband she hands it over to one
of the maids/witches. Almost the last word in the opera is sung by the same
dozen witches, lined up on the stage as at the beginning. They sing a hymn of praise
and love to God. Now that is irony. Brilliant.
Soprano Melody Moore as
Lady Macbeth dominates the singing of the production. She is domineering,
powerful and vocally superb. She belts out her notes like stingrays with
authority and evil splendour. The only problem I had with her was during the
sleepwalking scene. The horn that punctuates her singing was a bit louder than
her voice and I found it slightly disconcerting.
Bass baritone Eric
Owens as Macbeth made a fine contrast to Lady Macbeth. He is supposed to be
bloody, bold and resolute but, to use an á
propos term from the world’s baseball capital, he was 0 for 3. Owens’
Macbeth has ambition but not the stomach for it. He stoops, he crouches and goes
down on his knees like a tyrant who lacks the total evil and bearing displayed
by his wife. Owens’ rumbling voice served him well in a fine performance.
Melody Moore as Lady
Macbeth and Eric Owens. Photo: Karli Cadel/The Glimmerglass Festival
Bass Soloman Howard
provides another example of contrast. Unlike Macbeth, he is straight-backed
with a martial bearing and commanding vocal performance. He sings his great aria “Come dal ciel precipita” (How the shade falls from heaven) with sterling
resonance.
The production is
done in modern dress circa 1940s and the supernatural is eschewed. The witches,
as I said, are “ordinary” women with a huge streak of nastiness. They know how
Macbeth and Lady Macbeth think and they can predict the future by reading their
employers’ minds. When Verdi said that Macbeth
has only three characters, Macbeth, Lady Macbeth and the Witches he was
pointing to the psychological truths represented by the latter rather than any supernatural
powers they may be deemed to possess. Bogart has capitalized on this idea with
marvelous results.
The scenery by James
Schuette is minimalist. The walls of the stage have black panels with red roses
painted on them for most of the production. There is a large, revolving panel in
the centre of the stage with three doors on it. It is dark on one side for outdoor
scenes and is turned around to show brighter colours and lights for interior scenes.
Nothing lavish but it does the job.
The emphasis in
costumes, lighting and sets is on the somber and black except for the painted
roses which clearly represent blood.
The Glimmerglass
Festival Orchestra and Chorus come in for special praise for their brilliant
performance. Huge ovations for conductor Joseph Colaneri and Chorus Master
David Moody.
The final assessment
is that this is a well-sung and well thought out production with some original
and obviously unexpected twists that make for a terrific night at the opera.
_____
Macbeth by Giuseppe Verdi opened on July11 and will be performed
ten times until August 22, 2015 at the Alice Busch Opera Theater, Cooperstown,
New York. Tickets and information (607) 547-0700 or www.glimmerglass.org
No comments:
Post a Comment