As I write this my very favourite tenor du jour, Juan Diego Flores, is celebrating his 35th birthday. I first saw JDF as Count Almaviva in last season's Met production of Il Barbiere di Sevilla and I was blown away. I have listened to him a good deal since then and have heard not a thing to make me re-consider my original judgement that he is as good a bel canto tenor as there is out there today. Here he is in a clip from said Met show. Happy Birthday Sr.Flores!:
After some muted complaining about the Met simulcasts I went to the performance of Verdi's Macbeth on Saturday morning at the Lloyd Center movie theater and was delighted to have been there. Generally I avoid writing detailed reviews, mainly because there are people out there who do it a great deal better than I do but this performance contained so much that demands more than my usual cursory line or two.
First, the singing and acting. Excellent, pretty much all around. Notwithstanding the title of this piece it is really all about Lady Macbeth and boy what a role it is. The vocal demands are huge and I thought Maria Guleghina met them all. As she explained in her intermission interview Verdi requires Lady M be everything from a mezzo to a coloratura soprano and she sings a lot. A lot. I never once worried that Guleghina was not up to it. When alone or singing with Macbeth her voice had the beguiling quality required and when she was singing with what seemed like the entire cast she never got shriek-ey or let her voice get out of control. She also made me believe that she was the kind of woman who could get a man to kill for her. Yes, I know her hubby is a man driven by ambition and all that but in this opera he kills because he cannot bear for her to think of him as a wimp - or indeed anything less than testosterone made flesh. La Guleghina made this a very sexy role, and not just because she spent most of the opera clad in little more than a negligée. There was nothing subtle or eye-fluttering about this sexiness either. It was all "Oh, Macbeth; you are so strong and manly and if only we had all that power it would be so..umm..exciting, wouldn't it? Let's do it!" It was pretty strong stuff and he never stood a chance.
I had never seen Željko Lucic before. He did a very fair job of holding his own vocally against Guleghina. His voice is strong and rounded and produces an all-together pleasing sound. On the acting front he was somewhat less three-dimensional than Guleghina but he managed to look like a convincing tortured soul as needed. He didn't look like much else actually but that was okay. I am looking forward to seeing him again.
John Relyea played Banquo. This man is quickly becoming a star and seems to have already become the Met's default bass-baritone. Last season I saw him in I Puritani, La Boheme and Il Barbiere di Siviglia. This season as well as Macbeth he is back at the Met for Lucia di Lammermoor. My only complaint about him was that he had an unfortunate habit of singing out of the side of his mouth which didn't seem to effect the sound but looked weird. He doesn't seem to do that any more and I am wondering whether he saw a Met simulcast re-run, realised what he was doing and corrected it. Athletes look at video - why wouldn't singers? Anyway, all to the good.
Macduff doesn't have much to do in this opera except save himself for Act IV when he bitterly laments the loss of his wife and children at Macbeth's hands. He does this in the splendid aria 'Ah, la paterna mano' which Demitri Pittas delivered to great effect earning the afternoon's loudest ovation from the paying punters at Lincoln Center. What they missed but what we in the movie theaters got to see was the single tear which rolled...right on cue...down Pittas' cheek. Bravo!
James Levine was in charge of cat-herding for the afternoon and under his unerring direction the Met Orchestra produced a magnificent sound.
So there were many things to like about this performance. The production (Adrian Noble) and costumes (Mark Thompson) were not among them. The costumes! The chorus in Act I were made to look like a bunch of half-crazed 1950's housewives. The crowns which Macbeth and Lady M got to wear looked totally out of place and ridiculous. And, Mr Noble, proper kings never, ever, wear them at a jaunty angle. And whatever the period in which the production is set I am not prepared to believe a Lady M in tailored pants and a French manicure. And if you think I am being picky you should have heard the comments of the elderly lady seated next to me! I could go on and on but to what purpose?
Anyway, thank you Peter Gelb. This was an event I shall remember with pleasure for a long time and reminded me what a great composer for the stage Verdi really was. Yes, I know everyone else already knows that but sometimes I find myself going "Verdi? Meh!" Not today.
No comments:
Post a Comment