Thursday March 28, 2024
MACBETH
Review

MACBETH

September 12 2011

MACBETH, Opera Australia @ Sydney Opera House; 10 Sept-8 Oct 2011. Photos: Peter Coleman-Wright and Elizabeth Whitehouse; right: Rosario La Spina, by Branco Gaica

This co-production between Opera Australia and Opera de Montreal was first seen in Melbourne earlier this year (April) when it received the classic “mixed reviews”. The negative whispers preceded it and may put off some in Sydney. This would be a real pity. A lot of the adverse comment was aimed at the Canadian creative team: the set and costumes were not admired, while an apparent hiccup with the major casting (a late replacement for Lady MacB) was alleged to have upset the musical and dramatic balance; according to the critics anyway.

What a difference a revolve makes. For Sydney there have been adjustments. The set (Claude Goyette) is now an economical, single unchanging entity (the revolve doesn’t) so the immense, cartoonish dark forest that looms and glooms over it is very effective (lighting Etienne Boucher). Similarly, the castle walls, battlements, grand baronial hall and snooping corners so essential to royal intrigue in Shakespeare and Scotland are represented by a series of spare, brutalist structures. These also go nowhere fast and so allow the cast to carry on the choreography of court life and murder unhindered. (A banquet setting has been abandoned in Melbourne and this is surely for the best.)

The Sydney casting is also significant: Macbeth is now played by a magnificent Peter Coleman-Wright and his Lady is Elizabeth Whitehouse: they don’t come more powerful and thrilling, separately or together.

Guiseppe Verdi’s original librettist, Francesco Maria Piave, was smart enough to leave well alone in adapting the Scottish Play, although he did put much greater emphasis on Lady Macbeth. In dramatic and psychological terms, it works wonders for the drama. A similar focus and outcome was achieved by Bell Shakespeare in 2007 with the casting of Linda Cropper to Sean O’Shea’s Macbeth (see review in the archive). It highlighted the real seat of power: Lady Macbeth’s boundless ambition and strength and the sexual chemistry between husband and wife.

From the outset, when she realizes how close to grasping the crown she is, Elizabeth Whitehouse is aflame with this ambition, while her passion for her husband is reciprocated in a smouldering relationship that is carelessly displayed even in a hall full of courtiers and intriguers. As the would-be king, Peter Coleman-Wright again demonstrates (after his great performance in Bliss – see archive) that not only is he one of our finest baritones, but a fine actor too. He starts out full of himself, but uncertain too, an alpha male whose weakness is disguised by a much more formidable partner. The profound frailty of his personality is manifest in the bloody wraiths conjured up by a fevered imagination. His terrors grow as the air he breathes becomes ever more rarified, but the higher the Macbeths climb, the closer they come to the fall. It’s an awful depiction of the fatal consequences of unfettered power.

MACBETH

As the opera opens, the gathering in the forest of the witches’ coven sets the tone for the production (director Rene St Cyr, re-studied by Sally Blackwood for Sydney). Clad by costume designer Francois St-Aubin as neo-feral wood nymphs, the witches’ chorus and three sinuous dancers signal the supernatural events to come as the tragedy unfolds. They are in sharp contrast to the shabby-chic military coats and tunics of the lord’s men and the earthier, more realistic, retro-shabby of the peasants. The messages are clear and work well: Lady Macbeth’s blood-red velvet gown is a graphic indice of her early potency and ruthlessness; while her night threads of sleepwalking and murder continue the story as clearly as any script.

The rest of the company is as classy as its principals. On opening night the crowd favourite was clearly Rosario La Spina in Macduff’s soaringly sweet solo, “Ah, La paterna mano”. But the vocal and histrionic nobility of Daniel Sumegi’s Banquo is splendid – here’s a man whose right to stride the chilly corridors of Shakespeare’s Scotland is indisputable. Teresa La Rocca thrills in the role of a rare soprano lady-in-waiting, as does Adrian Tamburini as the assassin.

Musically Macbeth is fascinating with, for instance, some of the worst impulses and actions of the human race scored in lilting waltz time. It’s also an opera where the chorus is given an excellent opportunity to do what a chorus is supposed to do. And under the baton of conductor Andrea Molino it does that and more, especially in the final act. In the end – and it is a bloody and terrible one – this Macbeth is a tremendous evening of theatre and music with Elizabeth Whitehouse and Peter Coleman-Wright at its forefront. Wonderful stuff.

 

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