For all that Shakespeare’s Macbeth combines something of history and tragedy, it’s probably the play’s elements of fantasy and supernaturalism that stand out most in many people’s minds, and which clearly inspired Verdi and Piave to adapt it as an opera. Richard Studer’s production of the latter for West Green, in conjunction with Mid Wales Opera, keeps things simple visually while tending to emphasise its melodrama, particularly with respect to the chorus of witches. Apart from zombie-painted faces, they are not stereotyped hags but tartan-jacketed and skirted women, possibly 1950s secretaries or housewives, revelling in almost comically impish mischief at the opening of Act One, and brewing their ghoulish mixture on the heath in Act Three in a vintage metal kettle. With knowing theatrical irony, the same women become white-gowned nuns accompanying Duncan’s fateful procession into Macbeth’s castle before the king is murdered, and then fashionably coiffed society ladies at the banquet he hosts as the new monarch.
Other than the witches’ tartan, there’s a clear-cut contrast between the white and black costumes of the characters, suggesting the interplay of innocence and evil, or at least of murky power, since Banquo, Macduff and the soldiers are also in soldierly black uniform, and Lady Macbeth makes an ostentatious and disingenuous show between the two colours as occasion suits. Apart from the white dais on stage, the only other furnishings are the rows of diamond-panelled booths which flank the stage, illumined in glaring red to foreshadow the murder of Duncan, and later the ‘blood-boltered Banquo’. The production is all the more effective in not suggesting any particular era or place – though the men’s leather outfits look vaguely fascistic – so it seems unnecessary to introduce the Saltire in the final scenes, seemingly wanting to shoehorn this production into something of a specific interpretative stance after all.
Mari Wyn Williams’s impressively multi-faceted personification of Lady Macbeth happily resists any simple interpretation, but really directs the focus of the opera upon this character. Her generous vibrato garlanding a solid body of vocal tone conveys a forceful personality. But she skilfully modulates that to deepen the role’s complexity – flamboyant and wily on her first appearance as she goads Macbeth on to his perceived destiny; coquettish when bidding the banquet’s guests to drink, but then more hectoring and desperate when she repeats that to draw attention away from Macbeth’s distracted behaviour; and woolly when she is haunted by guilt in turn, on her final appearance. Combining musical and acting ability, hers is a talent to watch.
Jean-Kristof Bouton eloquently conveys a troubled Macbeth with his finely sustained baritone register, sometimes burgeoning into a tenor sonority to express the upstart’s doubts about his mission. But there’s also always an attractively lyrical strain in his singing. Simon Wilding is a calmly gritty Banquo, while in the tenor roles Robyn Lyn Evans is vehement as Macduff, if stretched in the higher register, and Thomas Elwin brings a sturdy Italianate colour to the brief part of Malcolm, hailed as king after Macbeth is vanquished.
Jonathan Lyness’s reduced orchestration provides an intimate musical backdrop, conducive to the claustrophobic atmosphere of the drama with Macbeth’s anxious thoughts both before and after Duncan’s murder and, later, Lady Macbeth’s decline into guilty insanity. Nevertheless, the urgent pace which Lyness keeps up with the West Green House Opera Orchestra makes for a generally successful performance in sustaining the work’s tenson and drama, though briskness somewhat undermines the weirdness of the woodwind arpeggios which accompany the apparitions in Act Three. But ominous woodwind sonorities and screeching piccolo at the beginning of the Overture certainly set the mood effectively otherwise.
The Mid Wales Community Chorus are also on fine form in bolstering the performance. The female voices of the witches are unsettled initially, but go on to provide their own vivid timbre. The male assassins in Act Two are outstanding in the tightness of their ensemble with their staccato stuttering, all the more sinister in that Verdi writes this in the major key, pre-empting the similar effect of the conspirators in Rigoletto who kidnap Gilda. The chorus together reaches a resounding climax elsewhere. Melodrama or tragedy, overall this is a compellingly concise and sharp staging.
The post West Green Opera – Verdi’s Macbeth – with Jean-Kristof Bouton, Mari Wyn Williams & Simon Wilding; directed by Richard Studer; conducted by Jonathan Lyness appeared first on The Classical Source.
