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<b>by Giuseppe Verdi, directed by Nicholas Muni
Canadian Opera Company, Hummingbird Centre, Toronto
September 22-October 5, 2005
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In the Canadian Opera Company’s new production of Verdi’s <i>Macbeth</i> (seen September 27, 2005), director Nicholas Muni and designer Dany Lyne are more preoccupied with devising striking visual images than with illuminating the characters and their relationships. What’s more confusing, they want us to view the Macbeths both traditionally and satirically as overreaching villains and to see them in a revisionist light as rebels against a repressive, hierarchical regime.
Lyne has set the action in the main hall of Macbeths’ castle that seems to double a church and day-care centre. During the overture we see 24 prim women in identical gray outfits knitting on 24 identical plastic-covered settees while their children play downstage. These are the wives of the Scottish warriors and the scene represents the strict social order under Duncan. Yet, with no change of costume, these women are also the chorus of witches. Does this represent only Macbeth’s view or suggest that a witch and a tyrannical assassin lurk beneath the placid façade of every married couple? The production has no answers for this or for what follows. The Macbeths’ crime/rebellion brings color--blood red--to Duncan’s gray world along with Texas-style bad taste including a stretch settee and huge red plaid gown and blond bouffant wig for Lady Macbeth. After Duncan’s murder the set becomes increasingly drenched in blood, though the Macbeths inexplicably never have a spot of red on them.
Nothing on stage matched the pervasive atmosphere of darkness and ineluctable doom conductor Richard Bradshaw drew from the COC orchestra. Muni did not help matters by establishing no rapport between the Macbeths, who mostly sang turned away from each other. Bass-baritone Pavlo Hunka, whose rich voice has been heard here in strong performances as Falstaff and Hunding, undercharacterized the role to the point that Macbeth seemed more like a harried accountant than a power-hungry laird.
Hungarian soprano Georgina Lukács dug deeply into the role of Lady Macbeth. Her hard-edged tone suited Lady Macbeth’s demonic nature, but it was a relief when she finally softened it for the Sleepwalking Scene. Turkish bass Burak Bilgili was a warmly resonant Banquo, but golden-toned Canadian tenor Roger Honeywell was the star of the evening in Macduff’s heartrending “O figli, o figli mie!”. The COC chorus sang gloriously in “Patria oppressa” and the final Hymn of Victory. Unsurprisingly, this <i>Macbeth</i> was most effective in such moments as these when it ignored the imposed concept entirely and exposed the human core of the drama.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: A version of this review appeared in <i>Opera News</i> 2005-12.
Photo: Pavlo Hunka and Georgina Lukács. ©Michael Cooper.
<b>2005-09-23</b>
<b>Macbeth</b>