• by Giuseppe Verdi
• In Italian with projected English Translations
• Approximate Running Time: 2 hours, 55 minutes

Verdi! Shakespeare! Hampson, Gaines, and Michael! What a season opener!

Witches fly, ghosts appear, and fires burn unnatural green…

Human and supernatural worlds collide as Macbeth and his Lady partner in horrific crimes to seize the Scottish throne!

Vaulting ambition, bloody betrayal, murder most foul — it's all here as mighty Verdi synthesizes the Bard's greatest moments, bringing laser-like focus to every character's soul with searing, powerful music.

Expect raw emotion and adrenalin-laced performances from our great stars — and a riveting new production from Chicago Shakespeare Theater's Barbara Gaines!

As Macbeth, the legendary Thomas Hampson — the leading exponent of the role today! "Hampson conjured up rage, pity, despair and defiance....The audience could only sit in stunned and appreciative silence....A triumph!" San Francisco Chronicle

And in her eagerly-awaited Lyric debut, Nadja Michael: Ravishing yet carnivorously intense..."She is a Lady Macbeth to die — and murder — for." theoperacritic.com

NEW PRODUCTION

New Lyric Opera production generously made possible by The Gramma Fisher Foundation of Marshalltown, Iowa, the Abbott Fund, Randy L. and Melvin R. Berlin, and Nancy W. Knowles.

The Matthew Bucksbaum Family is the generous sponsor of the Lyric Opera of Chicago Bucksbaum Family Broadcasts, with matching funds provided by The Crown Family, and Richard P. and Susan Kiphart.

The season of the witch arrives before Halloween this fall. Starting Oct. 1, covens of weird sisters will dispense cryptic prophecies to a suggestible Scottish general named Macbeth. Tantalized by forecasts of royal power and goaded by his fiendish wife, the newly titled Thane of Cawdor will assassinate the sleeping king to gain the throne. Potential usurpers will also be slaughtered. Guilty consciences and ghostly visions will drive Macbeth and his queen mad, until finally an advancing “forest” of camouflaged soldiers reclaims the desecrated kingdom.

“Something wicked this way comes,” indeed!

Audiences will surely shudder at the horrifying deeds depicted in Lyric’s new production of Macbeth, Verdi’s thrilling musical drama based on Shakespeare’s brutal tragedy. American baritone Thomas Hampson and German soprano Nadja Michael (debut) will star as the fascinatingly unhinged Macbeths, with American tenor Dimitri Pittas (debut) as Macduff, and Slovakian bass Štefan Kocán (debut) as Banquo. Renato Palumbo conducts; Donald Nally leads the Lyric Chorus, whose portrayal of the witches propels the drama.

Barbara Gaines, founder and artistic director of Chicago Shakespeare Theater, will make her much-awaited operatic debut staging Macbeth — and she can’t wait. Her creative team comprises James Noone (scenery, debut), Virgil C.  Johnson (costumes), Robert Wierzel (lighting), and Harrison McEldowney (choreography, debut), frequent collaborators at CST. Together they have conjured a darkly magical realm — eerily beautiful, timelessly long ago and far away.

Witches clad in diaphanous gauze layers will emerge from fire, from rocks, from earth and air, balletic and acrobatic in their comings and goings. The ladies of the court will be wrapped in sensuous jewel-toned fabrics. Lady Macbeth’s attire will shift from fiery to icy shades, reflecting her burning desire for power and her cold-blooded resolve. With Macbeth’s ascent to the throne comes the regal purple cape; elsewhere he’ll be outfitted appropriately for a military leader in rugged terrain.

The opera’s action will unfurl within moveable curved steel walls representing Macbeth’s masculine world of war, but also the closed chambers of his castle. Using atmospheric images of tangled tree branches and boulder-strewn heaths, Noone has created an environment of altered realism, “a magical space in which the music can come alive, and which has the same power as the music.” At times a sulfuric green glow will pervade the scene; at others, the sky will glow a bloody red. Notes Gaines, “The set shows a world out of sync — it’s not part of the ‘normal’ world. In the world of Macbeth, nature is surreal.”

This she believes: Shakespeare and Verdi are kindred spirits. Gaines has long recognized that these creative titans share a brilliant gift for storytelling and a profound musicality — even though they’re separated by more than two centuries and disparate nationalities. Her deep knowledge of the Bard, plus her longstanding love of opera in general and Verdi in particular, made her the clear choice for what promises to be an electrifying season-opener.

Gaines eagerly accepted when Lyric general director William Mason asked her to direct Thomas Hampson as Macbeth — on one condition. “I said, ‘If you can promise me that our Lady Macbeth is an excellent actress as well as singer, then I’ll do it.’” Having seen Hampson’s Germont (La traviata) and Athanael (Thaïs) at Lyric and Nadja Michael’s Salome in San Francisco, Gaines has full confidence in her stars. “Nadja feels very strongly that the Macbeths’ marriage was over before the curtain rises, and that her ambition is the passion, which works perfectly with what Verdi wrote,” Gaines says. “In the play Macbeth tries to protect his wife from the sordid details; in the opera she is the engine of the murders.”

She notes that “both Shakespeare and Verdi were men of the theater who wrote for their companies in order to show off the strengths of their performers. Both are very character-oriented. The truth of character is essential to each of them — they write from their brilliance about human behavior. And there’s a great musicality to Shakespeare’s use of language.” 

Throughout his life, composer Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) knew and loved the writings of William Shakespeare (1564-1616). Just 34, he had already written nine operas when, in 1847, he turned to Macbeth, which he considered “one of the greatest of human creations.” Verdi distilled the Shakespeare tragedy to its central players and violent essentials in his first foray into music drama. (Cutting scenes and characters was also typical of 19^th-century stagings of the play.) The result was groundbreaking, with no love story or Italian theme. Also unprecedented was Verdi’s belief that Macbeth’s music must “serve the poet rather than the composer. Write brief verses…not a superfluous word must they contain…and the style must be elegant,” he instructed librettist Francesco Maria Piave. The libretto retains the essence of Shakespeare’s vivid language, though several famous phrases are missing. Macbeth is Verdi’s most extensively revised work, with added music including a ballet. Lyric will present the 1865 version.

Macbeth has become a signature role for Hampson over the past decade. “You’re not seeing Shakespeare’s Macbeth set to music — it’s a distillation by a master creator of opera and creator of psychology in music,” the baritone declares. “You hear what these people are thinking in the music; the whole experience is very powerful and visceral because of the music.

“The opera is a seething cauldron of murder, guilt, hatred, sex, and addiction — a smoldering pot of human ugliness that Verdi captures brilliantly,” Hampson continues. “Kisses turn into bites — it’s a very sordid relationship. Lady Macbeth is the controlling demon of their activity. Macbeth, while not a victim, is without question the manipulated, willful and willing partner. His weakness is ambition and greed, his desire to be king. What is unforgivable is that he’s made a decision to do wrong.”

Macbeth’s hallucinations, Hampson adds, “come from his conscience, making him someone we can identify with,” which Verdi achieves “through the musical structure and musical language. As much as you despise what Macbeth has done, there’s still some redeeming flicker of light expressed through the music. It doesn’t make him sympathetic, but it makes his human nature sympathetic. We recognize in his weak moral nature our own. That flicker of sympathy we give him is not forgiveness — I think we’re rather glad he gets his comeuppance — but there’s a bit of Schadenfreude; he knows what a bastard he is. With Lady Macbeth, that’s not true — she’s evil like Claggart in Billy Budd is evil. There are no redeeming values there. Anyone who identifies with Lady Macbeth needs a priest, an analyst, or an exorcist! It’s a monstrous role. In my partner, I look for the same thing Verdi does — somebody who is concentrated on all the facets of the relationship. Nadja is a very committed artist who can act and sing and who looks the part. She’s a very exciting performer.”

Hampson recalls seeing Gaines’s production of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar at CST in 2003 and loving it. “She has a terrific reputation; she’s more interested in substance than theories, in working with characters to exemplify what they’re about.”

The director is scrupulous in preparing for a new production, particularly for her operatic debut. Gaines steeped herself in several recordings, studying the score with an opera-savvy colleague for months in order to grasp “what each moment means musically — listening, talking about it, feeling it, trying to understand it,” she recalls. Gaines also combed the score with Lyric’s Marina Vecci, and with Maestro Palumbo, to learn “what every word means in Italian. I wrote the translations directly into the score; if a word is important, or requires lightness, or Verdi set a certain word to a high C or high F-sharp, I need to know why, emotionally, he did that.”

Gaines is delighted at “how much I’ve fallen in love with the music, and how much fun it is to have my own opinion about it. I love the loneliness of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth at the end of the banquet scene. I love when she sings ‘La luce langue’ (‘The light wanes’). I love their duets. And I love the finale; the anthem of having the country back is a thrilling catharsis, and the harmonies are magnificent.”

With a laugh, she adds, “It’s all about the music! That’s it. You go into this knowing it’s all about the music. If we can then add the nuances of acting through the music, then we might have something interesting.” The twinkle in Gaines’s eyes belies her understatement.

By the pricking of her thumbs, something wonderful this way comes. 

On the Record

Roger Pines, dramaturg at Lyric Opera, recommends these recorded performances. 

CDs

Verrett, Cappuccilli, Domingo, Ghiaurov; La Scala, cond. Abbado (DG)

Ludwig, Milnes, Cossutta, Ridderbusch; Vienna Staatsoper, cond. Böhm (Orfeo)

Cossotto, Milnes, Carreras, Raimondi; New Philharmonia Orchestra, Ambrosian Opera Chorus, cond. Muti (EMI)

Pre-1960 

Rysanek, Warren, Bergonzi, Hines; Metropolitan Opera, cond. Leinsdorf (RCA)

Callas, Mascherini, Penno, Tajo; La Scala, cond. de Sabata (EMI Callas Edition)

When Claudio Abbado recorded Macbeth at La Scala, his artistic forces — with the exception of Plácido Domingo’s Macduff — were those of Giorgio Strehler’s now-legendary 1975 production. As a result, a distinct aura of the theater permeates the recording, and Shirley Verrett and Piero Cappuccilli respond to each other with the detail that can only come from stage performances. Nicolai Ghiaurov’s unquestionably authoritative Banquo is some years past his vocal peak, but Domingo is in prime form. As usual when performing a Verdi work under a great conductor, La Scala’s chorus and orchestra offer a conviction in this repertoire that is theirs alone.

The Orfeo label has preserved an important performance from Vienna that marked Sherrill Milnes’s Staatsoper debut (1970). Macbeth was invariably a part he sang gloriously, and on this occasion he was ablaze in the role; the character’s terror — first when seeing Banquo’s ghost, then later in the second Witches' scene — is hair-raising. Milnes has a distinguished partner in Christa Ludwig, even if Lady Macbeth stretches her beyond her vocal limits. The other two male principals, Carlo Cossutta and Karl Ridderbusch, offer strong support. The unexpected conductor is Karl Böhm, who had, in fact, recorded this opera (in German translation) back in 1943. His work lacks the slashing dramatic force of a Muti, but it is a disciplined, dedicated, involving reading that justified the request from the Staatsoper that this great Mozart/Strauss conductor return to Macbeth.   

Milnes reprises his memorable portrayal on EMI’s recording. Here he is paired with Fiorenza Cossotto, whose Lady Macbeth (a role she never performed onstage) is severely taxed at the top and seems a collection of numerous interesting episodes rather than a coherent view of the role. More satisfying are Maria Callas and Leonie Rysanek, the latter in a studio recording with the forces of the Met’s 1959 production, the former in a live performance from a time when she was still in superb voice (1952, at La Scala). These divas — one Greek-American, the other Viennese — have much to give to Lady Macbeth, each seemingly consumed by the role. The deep, complex colors of Callas’s lower-middle voice are just as potent as the soaring top of Rysanek, whose portrayal a critic once appropriately described as “dipped in venom.” The Met’s team is very strong, with Leonard Warren as Macbeth (his last new Verdi role — especially memorable in his final aria), plus Carlo Bergonzi (Macduff) and Jerome Hines (Banco) in eminently congenial assignments. Callas’s colleagues at La Scala aren’t quite as persuasive, but that performance has the inestimable advantage of being led by one of the greatest Italian conductors of the 20^th century, Victor de Sabata.

DVDs

Hampson, Maroccu, Lima, Scandiuzzi; Opernhaus Zurich, cond. Welser-Möst, dir. Pountney (TDK)

Paskalis, Barstow,  Erwen, Morris; London Philharmonic, Glyndebourne Festival Opera Chorus, cond. Pritchard, dir. Hadjimischev (Arthaus Musik)

Alvarez, Guleghina, Berti, Scandiuzzi; Gran Teatre del Liceu, cond. Campanella, dir. Lloyd (Opus Arte)

Bruson, Zampieri, O’Neill, Morris; Deutsche Oper Berlin, cond. Sinopoli, dir. Ronconi (Kultur)

The Macbeth DVD from Opernhaus Zurich stars Thomas Hampson, whose greatly celebrated portrayal of the title role opens the current Lyric Opera season. His is a performance of immense vocal beauty, theatrical power, and interpretive insight. Watching Hampson after the murder of Duncan, or when Macbeth sees Banquo’s ghost in the banquet scene, one is aware of an astonishing degree of musical detail, as well as an all-consuming dramatic involvement. In this provocative production directed by the brilliant David Pountney, Hampson is paired with the charismatic Italian soprano Paoletta Maroccu in an incendiary partnership. The marvelously responsive Zurich Opernhaus orchestra and chorus are under the direction of the company’s former music director, Franz Welser-Möst.

The most experienced Macbeth of two generations ago, Greek baritone Kostas Paskalis, gives a notably satisfying portrayal in the 1972 Glyndebourne production, opposite the vocally and dramatically blazing Josephine Barstow (whose Lady Macbeth triumphed nine years later at Lyric). The production is exceedingly dark, heavy, and static — made more so by massive Elizabethan costumes — and the estimable Sir John Pritchard is not at his best in Verdi. That the performance remains indispensable is thanks to the central pair and to the young James Morris, whose luxurious vocal richness and immense dignity make for an ideal Banquo.

As for other performances: An even darker staging is that of the Liceu in Barcelona, although here there are some memorable visual touches (the banquet scene, for example, where the Macbeths are in a sort of golden cage, which effectively isolates them from their guest). Again, the protagonists — in this case Carlos Alvarez and Maria Guleghina, who both have sung Verdi at Lyric — play splendidly opposite each other.

It’s worth enduring the problematic conductor and leading lady of the Deutsche Oper Berlin production, because the Macbeth is Renato Bruson, who sings fervently and brings a lifetime of experience in Verdi to a touchstone interpretation of this role.

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