- CAST
MACBETH: Thomas Hampson
BANQUO: John Relyea
LADY MACBETH: Violeta Urmana
LADY-IN-WAITING: Elizabeth Woolett
MACDUFF: Joseph Calleja
MALCOLM: Andrew Stritheran*
DOCTOR: Robert Gleadow*
*Jette Parker Young Artists
CONDUCTOR: Yakov Kreizberg
DIRECTOR: Phyllida Lloyd
LIGHTING: Paule ConstableCHOREOGRAPHY: Michael Keegan Dolan
Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
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A good and exciting performance, which sometimes rose to heights ofexcellence. Yakov Kreizberg favoured a brisk tempo at the opening, whichperhaps was more expressive of Macbeth's martial valour than of theatmosphere of sinister malevolence which should brood over the entirework, but the tempo was less brisk during the scenes where a moreleisurely tempo is important - the Sleepwalking Scene especially.
Thomas Hampson as Macbeth sounded slightly tentative at first, but, as Iindicated, rose to heights of excellence as the work progressed. Thus hewasn't quite confident in conveying the idea of Macbeth as a brave soldierand loyal subject, but very effective in conveying the disintegration of amind steeped in crime and not able to draw back. His "pieta, rispetto,amore" was indeed Shakespearean in tone! His voice is perhaps more lyricalthan dramatic, but I don't find this a fault.
He was well-matched by Violeta Urmana's Lady Macbeth, though it has to beadmitted that, on the night I saw the performance, she couldn't manage thehigh D flat at the end of the Sleepwalking Scene - it's supposed to almostfade away into nothingness, but she gave a gulp as she missed the note.Still, this was the only fault in an otherwise very convincingperformance; I was especially impressed with the interaction between herand Hampson in the duet after he has committed the murder, not justvocally but dramatically as well - his torment when he hears the voicesaying "Macbeth shall sleep no more", and her indifference to hisconscience. She was very forceful in the letter scene, and almost pitiable in the Sleepwalking Scene.
John Relyea has a deep, sonorous bass, and delivered Banquo's aria withconviction, and Joseph Calleja made the most of "Ah, la paterna mano",which is the tenor's "consolation prize" in this opera which concentrateson the baritone and the soprano.
The stage in Phyllida's Lloyd's uncluttered production was predominantlydark, and the shafts of light that occurred at crucial moments were thusunexpected and very effective. The witches are dressed in black, with red headdresses. Duncan is dressed in gold, and appears at the back of thestage on a gold-draped horse.....and this golden appearance is parodied by Macbeth and Lady Macbeth in the Banquet Scene; they look slightlyill-at-ease in their new finery, and I wondered if this was a reference to Shakespeare's clothing imagery; at one point Macbeth, when told he is to be Thane of Cawdor, asks "Why do you dress me in borrowed robes?"
The scene in which Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are visited by children is,according to Phyllida Lloyd, a definite reference to Shakespeare; not onlyMacduff's children (who do not appear in the opera), but also to therepeated images of barrenness that occur in the play with reference to theMacbeths. (Macduff's vengeance can never be complete, because "he has nochildren").
Another coup de theatre occurred as the screens rose to show Duncan'sbody, lying on the bed covered in blood - this doesn't usually happen evenin productions of the play, and it came as a shock. We also see the execution of the Thane of Cawdor.
To sum up - a good performance, musically and dramatically, and also visually effective.
Click on the image of Shakespeare to go to an online text of Shakespeare's play
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