patrikpen: Unsex Me Here in Music & Vision 10 February

lunedì 8 aprile 2013

Unsex Me Here in Music & Vision 10 February

Unsex Me Here

Verdi, Shakespeare and Macbeth's lust for power,
by GIUSEPPE PENNISI

Few opera stage directors or conductors remember that this is the key verse to understand Shakespeare's shortest tragedy, Macbeth:

Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full
Of direst cruelty!

The tragedy is based on the lust for power only. Macbeth and his Lady renounce everything, even sex (and having children) in pursuit of a very ephemeral absolute power. Their renunciation is stricter than that of Alberich in Das Rheingold [A Key Flaw, 26 January 2013]; the dwarf gives up love for power not sex and fathers Hagen with a prostitute.

The new production by the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, a joint venture with the Teatro Municipal of Sao Paulo in Brazil (likely to travel extensively in Europe and North America) is correctly based on this verse. This is one of the differences with the widely seen Riccardo Muti/Peter Stein production [A Triumphant Macbeth, 19 December 2011], much applauded in Salzburg and in Rome. The other salient points are the use of the 1865 'version' -- Muti prefers a tailor-made score based on a mix of Verdi's 1847, 1865 and 1874 editions -- as well as the employment of a 'coloratura' mezzo rather than a dramatic soprano for the role of the serial killer 'unsexed' Lady. Verdi himself considered the 1865 version as the 'reference score'.

I saw and heard the production on 5 February 2013 when it inaugurated Bologna's 2013 opera season -- an austere gala as becoming Italy's economic difficulties. The staging is entrusted to the internationally-known American director Robert Wilson (who also produced the sets and lighting; the costumes were signed by Jacques Reynaud); the musical direction to Roberto Abbado.

A scene from Verdi's 'Macbeth' at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna. Photo © 2013 Rocco Casaluci

The musical tint squares very well with that of Wilson's abstract and symmetrical action. We are in the dark, foggy, snowy Scotland of the Middle Ages, but in a rather imprecise land which looks like Japan as seen in the Kabuki Theatre. Curiously, in 2005, Bologna Teatro Comunale proposed (with the theatres of Ravenna and Trieste) a version of Verdi's Macbeth set following the rules of the Japanese Noh theatre.

As often in Robert Wilson's productions, the action is highly stylized which brings to the forefront the loneliness of the two power-hungry protagonists (Dario Solari as Macbeth and Jennifer Larmore as his Lady) and their distance from the others (Riccardo Zanellato as Banquo, Roberto De Biasio as Macduff and Gabriele Mangione as Malcolm). The Uruguayan baritone Dario Solari is a pick choice for the title role he has sung in many countries with success.

Jennifer Larmore used to be one of the stars of the Rossini Opera Festival some twenty-five years ago and many remember her masterly performances of L'Italiana in Algeri and La Cenerentola. At the age of fifty-five, she is still quite attractive; she has handled the darkening of her voice quite well as she can descend to 'alto' tonalities and ascend to the most intriguing 'belcanto coloratura'. In short, she brings to mind Maria Callas and Shirley Verrett in the role. It is what Verdi wanted, but now very seldom heard.

A great success.