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A magnificent discovery Parma
Teatro Regio
09/26/2024 - & October 6, 13, 17*, 2024
Giuseppe Verdi : Macbeth
Ernesto Petti (Macbeth), Lidia Fridman (Lady Macbeth), Michele Pertusi/Riccardo Fassi* (Banquo), Luciano Ganci (Macduff), David Astorga (Malcolm), Natalia Gavrilan (La Comtesse), Rocco Cavalluzzi (A physician), Eugenio Maria Degiacomi (A servant, A herald, First Ghost), Agata Pelosi (Second Ghost), Alice Pellegrini (Third Ghost)
Coro del Teatro Regio di Parma, Martino Faggiani (Chorus Master), Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini, Orchestra giovanile della Via Emilia, Roberto Abbado (Conductor)
Pierre Audi (Stage Director), Michele Taborelli (Sets), Robby Duiveman (Costumes), Jean Kalman, Marco Filibeck (Lighting), Pim Veulings (Choreography)
E. Petti; L. Fridman (© Roberto Ricci)
Several decades after the premiere of Macbeth (1847), the Théâtre Lyrique Impérial de Paris asked Verdi to prepare a French version of his opera. The ensuing Gallic incarnation is today a performance rarity largely unproduced in modern times. Parma’s Verdi Festival had programmed it for 2020, but the pandemic dictated only an open air concert performance. A memento of that revival, with no less than Ludovic Tézier as Macbeth, is available from the Italian label, Dynamic.
The rarity of this version was the reason for my trip to Parma. This is the first staged production of the work in the modern era. Given its excellence, one hopes it will be the first of several. Macbeth is possibly Verdi’s best opera of his youth prior to the mid‑career trilogy of Rigoletto (1851), Il trovatore (1853) and La traviata (1853). Revisiting his opera decades after its premiere, just two years prior to the master’s greatest opera, Don Carlos (1867), was bound to be an interesting prospect for the great composer, and he did not disappoint. That it was for Paris, the center of the universe at the time, undoubtedly motivated Verdi to produce magic, and he did. The main differences are that Lady Macbeth’s Act I aria “Trionfai” becomes “Douce lumière”/“La luce langue;” the Act III duet “Vada in fiamme” becomes “Heure de mort”/“Ora di morte;” and at the request of Léon Carvalho, manager of Paris’s Théatre Impérial de Paris, Macbeth’s final “Mal per vada che m’appressai” is substituted with a victory song by Malcolm, Macduff and chorus. Of course, there is also a ballet added to the French version to suit local tastes and the tradition of its opera at the time. Indeed, several of these changes were translated into Italian and are now standard in most versions of the Italian Macbeth.
Franco-Lebanese director Pierre Audi’s vision of the work is striking. He divides the opera into two distinct parts: Acts I and II versus Acts III and IV. The first two acts are the crescendo: the witches’s prophecies; the planning and doing of the sordid deed; Macbeth’s ascent to the throne; and the start of his psychological deterioration. The sets for the first two Acts are a reproduction of Parma’s Teatro Regio, a kind of jeux de miroirs. When King Duncan arrives, he first appears in the reflected theatre’s palco reale (royal box). The opera house is a representation of social visibility and ambition. It is also theatrical and imbued with intrigue, as is the plan to kill the king in Act I; the reception of the courtiers by the newly‑crowned Macbeth and his Lady; and the attempted feigning of normalcy when Macbeth starts to falter in Act II.
In Act I, the central part of the stage ascends and descends. It is in this centerpiece that the king descends and is murdered, an astute allegory to subterfuge as well as the subconscious. The witches first appear as spectators in the reflected Teatro Regio. They’re dressed in black and don’t exude a predictable shabby or disheveled appearance. This apparent bourgeois normalcy is effective in creating an appropriately menacing undercurrent. Lady Macbeth appears amid the witches, insinuating that she too is one, and that the prophecies are merely her own.
In much of Acts III and IV, chronicling the descent into Hell and fall of Macbeth, there are metal bars representing his caging in, his hallucinations and the eventual disintegration of Lady Macbeth. It also alludes to the paroxysm in Macbeth and his wife’s relationship. In the ballet, a dancer doubles for Macbeth and three dancers double for Lady Macbeth, alluding to the dominance of the latter.
Surprisingly, the cast, entirely composed of non-native French‑speakers, did justice to the language of Molière. Michele Pertusi’s diction was indeed remarkable, rendering his interpretation of Banquo most luminous. His voice has lost none of its beauty and he remains an exceptional actor. Italian baritone Ernesto Petti astounded with his clarion voice and elegant singing. Only in the letter scene, “Je les vis apparaître”, that Audi has Macbeth read instead of Lady Macbeth, does a strong Italian accent betray his French diction. For a musician, singing in a foreign language is substantially easier than regular speech.
The revelation of the evening was Russian soprano Lidia Fridman, whose interpretation of this difficult role far surpasses any Lady Macbeth I’ve ever seen. Endowed with an overwhelming stage presence, Fridman is a true bête de scène, riveting to witness, without a hint of excess. Her powerful instrument is that of a true spinto drammatico, effortless in the upper register and capable of soaring to a huge volume while maintaining a gorgeous resonance. Verdi described the ideal Lady Macbeth’s voice as “brutta” (ugly) to convey the character’s turpitude and darkness. Fridman manages to colour her voice to suit the role’s harshness. (Listen to her on YouTube to appreciate a beautiful timbre in less sordid roles). Even her French diction is superb. Her Act IV somnambulist scene “Une tâche que rien n’efface” was captivating.
Italian tenor Luciano Ganci, highly admired in a recent production of Don Carlo in Düsseldorf, sounded glorious as Macduff, but his diction was a distraction. Even Costa Rican tenor David Astorga impressed with his beautiful timbre and squillo in the small role of Malcolm. It would be hard to imagine a better cast than this one.
Roberto Abbado (nephew of Claudio) led the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini with panache, bringing out the darkness of the score, especially in the scenes with Lady Macbeth. His reading was in line with a more mature Verdi. Gone was the unpleasant um‑pa‑pa beat that plagues much of early Verdi. Martino Faggiani did wonders with the Coro del Teatro Regio di Parma in this work where the chorus is omnipresent. This was especially the case for the male chorus. The female chorus was powerful, but their diction too was alas unintelligible. Nonetheless, this was a remarkable evening of first‑rate Verdi and a marvelous discovery of a glorious work.
Ossama el Naggar
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