Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center – Grand Tier, Seat Box 30-4 ($115).
Conductor – James Levine; Macbeth – Ziljko Lucic; Banquo – John Relyea; Lady Macbeth – Maria Guleghina; Macduff – Dimitri Pittas.
Story: Macbeth and Banquo are told by a group of witches that Macbeth is going to become first the Thane of Cawdor and then King of Scotland, and that Banquo's descendants will be the father of kings. After Macbeth is made Thane, he, at his wife's urging, assassinates King Duncan and assumes the throne. To prevent Banquo's children from taking over, Macbeth tries to have Banquo and his son Fleance killed; Banquo is killed, but his son escapes. Macbeth visits the witches again and is told “no man of woman born” can harm him and he will be invincible until Birnam Wood marches on his castle. Meanwhile, both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are haunted by their deeds, and Lay Macbeth eventually dies. Macduff, who has fled Scotland because of his disgust with what happened in Scotland, comes back with English soldiers camouflaged with branches from Birnam Wood, and tells Macbeth that he had a Caesarean birth before killing Macbeth and installing as King Malcolm, son of Duncan.
Shakespeare's Macbeth is based loosely on the historical Mac Bethad mac Findlaich, king of Alba from 1040 to 1058. I had not read nor seen the play, but the story as told in the opera was quite easy to follow. Macbeth's role was supposed to be sung by Lado Ataneli, the “substitute” Lucic is also singing the role in this season's production, not an understudy.
Our seats had only a partial view (left side) of the stage, and I had to stand to get a reasonably good view. The subtitle panel is on the left (away from the stage); it was much easier to read Anne's panel. The seat really should be charged as an SRO seat. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the opera tremendously with only a few minor quibbles.
I had seen Levine conduct a few times before (a couple of Mozart operas and Donizetti's Lucia), and was not all that impressed despite his reputation. We had a good view of the pit (and least the left side) and I could see the lines in the score with binoculars. Levine conducted with great energy and excitement today; he did have to sit on a high chair though.
The program notes says “The score of Macbeth features very little of the melodic abundance that made Verdi famous.” That was probably true. However, the drama is so gripping that everything seemed to fit together very well. On the one hand, I don't think there is one single aria that is “hummable”; on the other hand, having just seen Prokofiev's War and Peace a couple of weeks ago, I suspect most operas would have sounded quite melodic to us. I always have trouble when staging is “freshened up” (in this case to post-WWII Scotland.) So we now have guns and a Jeep rather than bows and arrows and whatever transportation they used in the 1000's. The killings were still done with knives and swords, though. Also, the opera ends with people singing praises to the triumphant return of Malcolm. I don't know how the play ends, but a more dramatic end could have been when Macbeth is killed. I also thought the “crystal ball” showing the apparitions was a bit amateurish; Banquo's ghost roaming the grounds is more effective, and reminds one of the young lady in Lucia.
The singers all did a great job. Lady Macbeth's role is particularly difficult; she had to start Act 1/Scene 2 without accompaniment, I was worried (needlessly) of course, that she would miss her pitch. However, she did seem to have trouble reaching the high note (D flat) in the sleep walking scene; and it wasn't done with the “thread of voice” called for by Verdi. Actually, she shouted most of the time. Nonetheless, her depiction of Lady Macbeth was evil enough. Also, the actors had to do a lot of falling down, which they managed without hurting themselves.
The performance we saw was broadcast live on WQXR. The commentators kept referring to the play as “The Scottish Play”, saying it is considered bad luck to name the play by name. I wonder why.
Anne forgot to turn off her cell phone. And sure enough it rang, and caused great commotion, when Ellie tried to call. The upshot of that was we were quite embarrassed, but had home-cooked Lasagna for dinner at Ellie's place that evening.
I am going to London later this week and may visit Stratford-upon-Avon. Too bad they don't have a production of Macbeth, it would have been interesting to see how the play compares with the opera.
See the New York Times review. It is quite informative on the production and has a good analysis of the Met performance.
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