Free opera tonight: Macbeth on the Rhine
OperaIn order to capture the demonic element in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Giuseppe Verdi stuck close to the text and experimented with new timbres. In a remarkable stage design by Henrik Ahr, which resembles a huge cauldron, Michael Thalheimer focuses his production on Macbeth, Lady Macbeth and the witches. Verdi specialist Antonino Fogliani conducts a stellar production, in which the opulent choruses repeatedly provide musical highlights. Macbeth is sung by Hrólfur Sæmundsson, Lady Macbeth by Ewa Płonka, Banco by Bogdan Talos, Macduff by Eduardo Aladrén and Malcolm by David Fischer. The opera is streamed by Slippedisc, courtesy of OperaVision.
The Plot: After a victorious battle, the witches predict a crown for the Scottish commander Macbeth. In response to the witches’ prophecies, Macbeth’s thirst for power is fuelled dangerously by his wife and they decide to murder their king Duncan in his sleep. With this act of blood, they unleash an unprecedented spiral of violence that will lead them straight into the abyss.
Available from Friday 30th September at 1900 CET/ 1800 London/ 1300 New York
“Michael Thalheimer focuses his production on Macbeth, Lady Macbeth and the witches.”
Wow! What a unique concept!
What was the name of the opera again?
I’d rather see Ernest Bloch’s powerful take on Macbeth being staged more often than Verdi’s old warhorse.
I would also like to see and hear Bloch’s work, but I would certainly not call Verdi’s “Macbeth” an old warhorse, as it receives FAR fewer performances (and recordings) than those true warhorses, The Ring operas, Die Meistersinger (an alleged comedy), and Tristan.
awful, a stage director who does not trust the material, with singers who cannot deliver on the material, that’s why they rely on cheap zombie theatrics, to create halloween horror rather than real psychological horror
and what’s with all these operas set in the bottom of a swimming pool (see Bayreuth Gotterdammerung)? is it cheaper to share the same set?
Just saw this yesterday, while the production itself is ‘different’, the performances were great, specially Lady Macbeth, what a voice!