Giuseppe Verdi's "Macbeth"

[duccio]

An interesting favorite opera of mine is Verdi's Macbeth. It's a very jittery and nervous opera in it's composition, prominently featuring the chorus as three covens of witches, and again, portraying the citizenry of Scotland (or anywhere) as main characters, and unrivaled slaughter perpetrated by their leaders: a work for our times. I just saw this trailer for a 2009 production staged in Munich that looked very good. Apparently it aroused much controversy among conservative members of it's audiences. (Imagine that.) The staging looks like it takes place in a terrestrial Hell ala Hieronymus Bosch. It will never be staged in the US (comfy home of far right conservatism) without censorship and drastic alterations, that's certain. I'd have liked to have seen this one. This trailer (they make them for opera productions in Europe) mostly features the video presented as silent, with the Overture, and a small section of the chorus from close to the end of the opera being the background sound for the many video clips taken from throughout the production.

Comments

[shinsetsu]

I loved the music, but the video can go. Germans are weird. lol :-p

[duccio]

Hmm, it really looked good to me. To each his own, I guess.

Macbeth as an opera seems to lend itself to "weird" though. There are the witches, which Verdi increases from three to about 30, and then the increasing paranoia of the protagonists as their guilt and fear of the same fate they have meted out to others gradually consume them, drives them to insanity. This usually gives the directors of new productions a great opportunity to express these things visually in new ways, maybe relating to current events, or in the old ways sticking close to the source which is fascinating to begin with.

Opera is essentially about intense emotional experience delivered through music, and we all know horror is a great vehicle for intense emotion. Some people like to see opera always performed in a conservative way, in period, as they imagine "the composer would have wanted it". while others want to see it "evolve and stay current" and be edgy. Both ways are interesting to me if there is passion and commitment along with good singers and a strong and dynamic orchestra, because the changing casts and new directors and productions always bring something new to think about irregardless of being conservative or not. One could close their eyes and their imagination would make up their own staging, they becoming all the characters themselves - the strength of the music presentation being the thing that takes you there. Everything possible is there in the music.