A Triumphant Macbeth in Music and Vision 19 December

A Triumphant Macbeth
Under Riccardo Muti's baton,
Verdi's first Shakespearean opera
inaugurates Rome's opera season,
by GIUSEPPE PENNISI

The inauguration of the Teatro dell'Opera 2011-2012 season is always an important event. The head of state and a number of ministers are in the audience. This year, the performance started earlier than usual, providing the opportunity to attend formal dinners in nearby top-class hotels. Ladies wore long dresses, gentlemen dinner jackets. Even though Italy is in the middle of a very severe financial and economic crisis, on 27 November 2011, the orchestra seats and boxes showed elegance and jewels. Glittering decorations embellished the foyer. Also, wine was offered to the audience during the intermission. There were two additional reasons to celebrate: firstly, earlier in the week, an order-in-council by the government had granted special status to the Teatro dell'Opera, also for its responsibilities of representation in the nation's capital; secondly, Riccardo Muti had accepted the position of Teatro dell'Opera's musical director for life. (This is not just an honorary title -- some of Teatro dell'Opera's closest collaborators have joined the staff of the Rome Opera House.)
The opera chosen for the evening is Verdi's Macbeth. This is the first of the operas Verdi composed after a Shakespearean play. The opera was commissioned by the Teatro La Pergola in Florence where it was premiered in 1847. Verdi felt very strongly about the play: 'this tragedy', he wrote to his librettist Francesco Maria Piave, 'is one of the greatest creations of man! If we cannot do something great with it, let us try at least to do something out of the ordinary'. Indeed, the opera is 'something out the ordinary'; it was very successful in 1847 with huge ovations after the sleepwalking scene and as many as thirty-eight curtain calls. The 1847 version also travelled to several Italian theatres because it dealt with a power plot in Scotland circa 1040 and, thus, had no problems with the censorship of the time. Nonetheless, Verdi drastically revised the opera for a Paris performance in 1865; a new librettist was called in (Andrea Maffei), the text was translated into French, a ballet was included at the beginning of Act III, new arias were added -- most significantly the Act II aria La Luce Langue for Lady Macbeth, a new duet for the Lady and the King in Act III and two important choruses at the beginning and at the end of Act IV. Verdi's style had changed between 1847 and 1865 -- in particular his orchestration had become more elaborate and included chromatic sections. The French version was not a great success. Verdi revised the opera once again: for La Scala's premiere in January 1874. This last round of revisions entailed shortening the ballet, modifying the orchestration and several minor retouchings to various musical numbers. Although for several years the 1847 version has been played, clearly Verdi considered the 1865 and 1874 editions far superior to the earlier work. Now, the 1847 version is performed mostly in festivals -- some forty years ago, it was the 'hot piece' of the Spoleto Festival. By and large, the same fate occurred to the 1874 version (some five years ago performed at the Sferisterio Festival in Macerata). In practice, the 'reference edition' is the 1865 version in the Italian translation for the 1874 La Scala presentation.
In Macbeth, even in the 1847 version, Verdi was successful for the first time in expressing and developing characters in music. Lady Macbeth is one of the finest singing-acting roles he ever composed; her various arias reveal the hands of a master. It rightly amazed its first listeners for the boldness of the form, the expression of characters and the sure sense of theatre.
These introductory comments may seem quite erudite and nitpicking. However, it is very important to know which Macbeth one is going to listen to. Especially, if we deal with a major new production with Riccardo Muti in the pit, the stage direction of Peter Stein, sets by Ferdinand Wögerbauer, costumes by Anna Maria Heinrich, lighting by Joachim Barth and an important vocal cast. The production is a joint-venture with the Salzburg Summer Festival where it was acclaimed last August. However, it is not a remake of what was seen and heard in Austria; the stage direction and sets had to be modified because of major differences between the two theatres, the orchestra is that of the Rome Teatro dell'Opera and there have been quite a few changes in the cast. It is likely that this specific production will enter the repertory of the Vienna Staatsoper rather than the Salzburg edition because of architectural similarities between the Teatro dell'Opera and the Staatsoper. The production basically follows the 1865 version but certain key-parts (especially the ending) are from the 1847 version -- for example, the opera's final scene is Macbeth's death, not the usually performed 'Victory Chorus'. In a way, it is a rather unique Macbeth. Dramaturgically, it is more powerful than the 1865 version but it requires a lot of homogenizing of the scores composed nineteen years apart -- indeed nineteen years of significant developments in European music, in general, and in Verdi's manner of composing, in particular.

From left to right: Antonio Poli as Macduff, Anna Malavasi as Lady Macbeth's lady-in-waiting, Tatiana Serjan as Lady Macbeth and Dario Solari in the title role of the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma / Salzburg production of Verdi's Macbeth. Photo © 2011 Silvia Lelli. Click on the image for higher resolution
Before commenting on the production, an overall general remark. I have seen and listened to previous Macbeth performances under Muti's baton: in the early eighties in Naples and in the mid-nineties at La Scala. During these thirty years, Muti's approach to Macbeth has changed; now it is more sober, less vibrant, the tempos are slower, very attentive to the details. Yet there is a strong dramatic vigor to the key parts of the action. This Macbeth is a reflection on human crime and punishment, whilst the Naples Macbeth was a meditation on power politics. As a result, there is more emphasis on the chromatic parts as well on the psychology of the main characters. The ballet is transformed into an interlude before Act III with the curtain down. No doubt, this has entailed a lot of work between Muti and Stein with a view of making a unified and engrossing production. The Rome orchestra and chorus (directed by Roberto Gabbiani) responded very well; they are more 'Verdian' than the Wiener Philharmoniker in Salzburg last summer.

A scene from the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma production of Verdi's Macbeth. Photo © 2011 Silvia Lelli. Click on the image for higher resolution
The staging was originally conceived for Salzburg's Felsenreitschule where the boxes excavated into the rock are a natural scene and only a few simple props are required to evoke a primitive Kingdom of Scotland, its royal palace and its forests. In Rome, the stage sets are slightly different; monochromatic background drop, the same Salzburg props and action mostly at the front to set the protagonists and their tormented souls in the limelight. The overall atmosphere is dark. The costumes reflect Shakespearean times or rather how primitive Scotland could be seen at the period of the Bard and of Queen Elizabeth I: Macbeth and his lady wear sparkling red robes; all the others are mostly in brown or grey. Great attention on acting and on movements of the extras especially in those sections (eg the witches music and the jaunty little entrance march of Duncan and his retinue) when the score may sound a little trivial. The staging atmosphere in the Macbeth/Lady Macbeth duets, in the sleepwalking scene and even in Macduff's aria (often difficult to resolve dramaturgically), was excellent.

Tatiana Serjan as Lady Macbeth with Dario Solari in the title role of the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma / Salzburg production of Verdi's Macbeth. Photo © 2011 Silvia Lelli. Click on the image for higher resolution
Tatiana Serjan is a veteran of the Lady Macbeth role. She does not have what is generally called 'a beautiful voice'. Verdi himself said that this was not required, but that, instead, a lot of temperament is needed. Tatiana Serjan is not lacking that. Also she knows the part inside-out. The role is essentially for a dramatic Donizettian soprano with agility and the capability to ascend to high tonalities and to descend to grave notes. She was quite good in the impervious cavatina -- a double aria with a cabaletta where the moments of agility are interwoven in a formal rigid structure. The sleepwalking scene, where her D flat pianissimo was supported by Muti showing the marvelously inventive orchestral contribution, was excellent. She was very effective in her duets with Dario Solari (Macbeth). The Uruguayan baritone, in his mid-thirties, has now reached full maturity with a role where a dark tint and declamation prevail (to better contrast his lady's agility and coloratura); especially good in 'mezza voce' and 'whispering'. Riccardo Zanellato is a solid well-experienced Banquo. Antonio Poli as Macduff has only one aria, but sang it very well.

A scene from the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma production of Verdi's Macbeth. Photo © 2011 Silvia Lelli. Click on the image for higher resolution
There were much open stage applause and many standing ovations when the curtain fell.
Copyright © 19 December 2011 Giuseppe Pennisi,
Rome, Italy

GIUSEPPE VERDI
MACBETH
TEATRO DELL'OPERA
ROME
ITALY
RICCARDO MUTI
FRANCESCO MARIA PIAVE
SCOTLAND
SALZBURG
SALZBURG FESTIVAL
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