an atmosphere that simply reeks with class
A member of the cher public who attended last night’s premiere of Verdi’s Macbeth at the Opéra national de Paris filed this report:
It was Paris Opera GM Gerard Mortier‘s penultimate opportunity – his term ends in July – Â to moon opening night Parisian audiences and he did just that. He flew in bad-boy director Dmitri Tchernlakov from an opera house in Novosibirsk, Russia, to wreak havoc on Verdi’s Macbeth.
Before the overture, we see a ugly town square where someone shows up in a backpack, drawing people from the surrounding buildings who shout a welcome. During the overture, we see projected images of Google Earth circling a town; ironically, Â it was Google Earth I was using earlier in an unsuccessful attempt to locate Novosibirsk. We float down to a lifeless house and look through window at a plain room with a happily flaming gas fireplace.
Clueless stage direction rule number one: when crowds drink, never put a table for the empty glasses. Macbeth set his on a chair and later, when he has his banquet mad scene the couple managed their rough-housing while holding champagne goblets. The departing crowd had to place their goblets precariously on the various chairs when leaving.
Lady M. appears, inexplicably, with a top hat during her mad scene. The Soviet-style pants suit she was given was credited to the director but resembled rather the fashion house of Hormel. Macduff sings his sole aria in a wooden playpen complete with toys. Men are wearing ill-fitting Kruschev-era cheap suits. The costumes for the crowds are 20th Century Refugee. They could have brought the entire lot at the Salvation Army store for $375 but, as the costume shop made them, you can add three or four zeros to the cost. The witches were judged expendable as were the assassins of Banquo – roles assumed by the shabby crowd.
The chorus, although unannounced, was apparently on strike (or the variation the French call service minimum) the first half, singing mezza voce, and make only a little more effort later. You could count on the
fingers of one hand when they entered on the beat – and, remember, the chorus plays a key role in this opera.
The conductor, Teodor Currentzis, was standing on every phone book in the building, partially obstructing the view of anyone with orchestra seats. He managed to convince the lazy orchestra, however, that he actually was 10 feet tall and they played like the polished ensemble they could be but never are. If you can imagine a young John Cleese doing his out-of-control conductor bit, you can come close to the fun I had watching him in action. The good news: he stirred the orchestra into such a pitch, they drowned out most of the singing.
Just as well. Our Macbeth was Dimitris Tiliakos whose approximate Italian, raspy voice and limp delivery was uncomfortable to watch and hear. His wife, Violeta Urmana, took about a half-hour to find the right key but even then sang with an painful edge. Clearly theatrically challenged, she was awkward from first to last and obviously was getting no help from the stage director. There was not a single gesture by anyone this night that seemed real.
Ferruccio Furlanetto‘s Banquo sounded shopworn but fortunately his character is dispatched early. Stefano Secco, a well-known tenor in this house, was the parka-wearing Macduff. His new rafter-raising voice, winning large applause for his only aria, had regulars speculating that he was miked.
The production dispenses with the action which ends the opera – the director couldn’t be further bothered. We seen Macbeth alone on stage encouraging the audience to fight while the backstage chorus, well-amplified, reply. The celebratory chorus ending the opera, one of the most stirring Verdi every wrote, is sung offstage as we leave the building and float back up to Google heaven. It was Verdi drained of meaning, passion, truth and purpose. The ones who disemboweled this early masterwork were roundly booed at the curtain but Mortier somewhere was certainly smiling.
I’m so glad I decided to pass on spending a lot of money for a ticket to this during my upcoming trip to Paris! So sad to see money going to waste on what looks like a dull and uninspired production. Then again I haven’t actually seen it so I shouldn’t judge.
I think Tiliakos is singing Marcello at the Met next season.
Confusing: Why is so much money going to waste in such tough economic times? Who pays for this Scheisse anyways?!
Here is the comment I posted on my Facebook page when I got home from seeing this last night: The stage direction of Macbeth at the Opera Bastille’s new production can best be described in Macbeth’s own words: It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
One “Verdi voice” who has spent most of his career in Germany — well away from the Met’s stage, sadly — is baritone Yalun Zhang. Best known for his interpretation of Rigoletto, he has apparently elected to enjoy a steady income and stable home life in Hannover and Stuttgart. He is also well-regarded for the roles of Amonasro (which he has sung at the Met), Count di Luna, Nabucco, Don Carlos (Ernani), Ezio (Attila), Rodrigo (Don Carlo), and Renato (Ballo). That’s a pretty good Verdi repertoire, I’d say, and he’s also a terrific actor.
To be honest, it sounds kinda interesting for me. Better than a lot of people prancing around in kilts.
#10, yes Amnerees, I quite agree – a long while without Verdi voices. And I, too, wonder why, and a dozen or so years ago I asked the great voice teacher Margaret Harshaw that very same question, she who had sung Amneres quite successfully to a number of Verdi-voiced Aidas. MH said, and this is a close paraphrase, ‘singing teachers don’t teach the basics as well as they should and young singers don’t work as hard as they should, and it takes time and diligence to develop a Verdi voice.’ She then went on to explain the specifics of ‘placement’ and ‘support’ and so on, which I wont go into here. I don’t think Harshaw was far off the mark. My point in commenting on Urmana as I did was this: I heard her as a mezzo, including a superb Brangaene, then I heard her Gioconda and such, and we went from superb to also-ran. I am not at all sure that Aidas should be singing Lady Macbeths in the same part of their career. Those rolse are so different, they require, really, different voices or voices in differing stages of their careers. Maybe Urmana is already there; I was sorry to see that talent degraded, for that’s how she sounds in the dramatic soprano roles. Oh well…
For some reason i thought Urbana’s husband is a tenor. I might be mistaken, I know he is Italian, balding and not at all attractive.
Funny that Harshaw said those things because she didn’t turn all that many good singers after the 80′s. Her students at the time of my attendance at IU were all known for pushing their voices beyond recognition. There was a soprano (infamous for being a real bitch) who sang both (Massenet’s) Manon and Tosca in the same year, neither was pretty. I sang in Lucia with one of her baritone students and the pushing and yelling was unbearable.
Sanford, I think the problem with Urmana she actually gave up some roles that are perfect for her. Amneris, Eboli and Brangane are dramatic soprano roles and she now thinks that because she officially calls herself a soprano she can no longer sing them. She is now instead stretching her voice in Aida, which she can sing, but not as well as Amneris; plus the tessitura is not congenial to her voice.
I can see a soprano Eboli doing Lady Macbeth, an Aida is a different voice all together.
“Her students at the time of my attendance at IU were all known for pushing their voices beyond recognition. ”
I would say that a majority of the Harshaw students I’ve encountered have always had serious technical issues.
Cassandra:
maybe not all of them. Benita Valente was apparently a Harshaw student and we all know that she has had a long and illustrious career. I am not sure who else from the 70s and 80s was a Harshaw student. Anyone can mention more?
Of the current ones before the public I think Emily Magee was one of them.