Verdi’s ‘Macbeth’ comes alive in the Cotswolds
Photo credit: Matthew Williams-Ellis
One of the joys of summer country house opera in England is the immediacy of the experience. Unlike Covent Garden or the London Coliseum, both of which have auditoriums seating well over two thousand people, here one is enclosed in a far more intimate setting. And the acoustic at Longborough, set in the Cotswolds, is simply marvellous.
When Verdi first created his opera Macbeth in 1847, one Italian critic complained that he didn’t know his Shakespeare, but this was insolent nonsense. He fully respected Shakespeare’s genius, knew his works well, and as Verdi’s musical language became stronger he revised this relatively early work, producing a new version in 1865. This was inspired by a commission from Paris at the Théâtre-Lyrique, which required a ballet and a final chorus, and on re-examining the score he found it needed more of an overhaul than he originally thought.
An important aspect of Italian opera in the mid-nineteenth century was the bel canto tradition of beautiful singing, but for Macbeth the composer demanded singers for the eponymous character and his wife who could give a less mellifluous performance of these aggressively dramatic roles. Verdi created drama within the way the characters expressed themselves, rather than simply the words themselves. Seeing this, and hearing the music so thrillingly played under the baton of young Italian-Turkish conductor Nil Venditti was a great experience. This was opera as it was meant to be at the time, a dramatic-musical response to heart-rending situations with characters who can turn out to be manipulative monsters.
It doesn’t need an elaborate production or directorial manipulation, just simple staging, appropriate lighting and excellent musicianship. Here at Longborough it had all three, under the director Karolina Sofulak and the excellent Nil Venditti. It made a terrific impact. Macbeth himself was a firm and well-nuanced Mark Stone, with Ukrainian soprano Viktoriia Balan spirited and extremely well sung as Lady Macbeth. Fine singing too from the tenor Jung Soo Yun as Macduff, the bass John Molloy as Banco, and the young tenor Duncano Rhydian Jenkins as Malcolm. The witches came over with ominous theatricality and the chorus was terrific.
The vital immediacy of the performance is well worth the trip.
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