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Production: Adrian Noble, Set & costume designer: Mark Thompson, Lighting designer: Jean Kalman & Choreographer: Sue Lefton
EMI Classics continues its collaboration with the Metropolitan Opera with a new production of Verdi’s richly haunting opera, Macbeth, as part of this season’s Metropolitan Opera : Live in High-Definition series.
For the first time in 20-years, the Metropolitan Opera presents the first of Verdi’s three operas based on Shakespeare, ‘in a stylistically eclectic, grimly effective and, at times, intriguingly playful production’ (New York Times) by English director Adrian Noble, making his Met debut.
At the time of composition, Macbeth was unique. Not only was it considered both musically and dramatically bold, but it was the first opera that can truly be described as Shakespearean. It was the first that altered operatic conventions to serve the play rather than converting the play into traditional operatic formulas.
After 35 highly successful years as Music director of the Metropolitan Opera, a relationship unparalleled and unique in the musical world today, James Levine conducts Verdi’s haunting score with tension and a type of brutality that this chilling work commands.
December 2008
****
“…well propelled by Levine, and fairly effectively staged by Adrian Noble in a scruffy, modern-Balkans ambiance. Zeljko Lucic is a solid, mellifluous anti-hero, but low on charisma; Maria Guleghina has enough for two, wielding her huge voice with electrifying physicality, and with intelligence.”
2010 edition
***
“characteristically lavish, with a big chorus, singing really splendidly...Lucic as a murderous Macbeth, singing strongly, is determined enough, but Maria Guleghina is even more so...Levine conducts dramatically and the production gains from its spectacle, and with a powerfully sung close, many will feel that this should be a primary choice.”
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