John Minagro made an excellent contribution as Banquo, contrasting strongly with Herrera in the first scene and delivering his aria with polish and plenty of dark, bass tone. Benjamin Bongers was a fine Macduff, Kevin Courtemanche a stalwart Malcolm. The witches (not the chorus Verdi used, but Kelly Powers, Cary Ann Rosko, and Alison Bloomfield) were light-voiced but managed to be spooky nonetheless.

For this production Khuner engaged the UC/Berkeley Alumni chorus, a larger group than could fit on the Julia Morgan stage in a full-dress setting. They performed with discipline for the most part, although the women did not project in the first scene. However, the big framing choruses of Act IV came off really well.

The orchestra was literally center-stage in this production, although their numbers were still a modest twenty-six. After a rhythmically stiff prelude, they got into the swing of things and provided a number of electric moments. Aside from a couple of flubs in the brindisi and the battle fugue in Act IV, which needs more work, they gave a tight, spirited performance. The players were especially fine in the character-rich passages that abound in this score, such as in Act III, when the apparitions materialize before Macbeth. Despite the reduced string section the balances were generally good, although they do have to be careful about listening for the singers from their new position. Khuner's leadership was impeccable, as usual.

The visual and dramatic side of the production was uneven. Left mainly to themselves, the cast relied on stock opera-stagey gestures and generalized emotions that dulled the impact of the drama. The bold production concept featured designs by artist Ariel in projections by Jeremy Knight. Many of the projections were brilliant: in the sleepwalking scene, for example, we were shown a claw-like gloved hand adorned with blood-red jewels that looked almost like boils. Images from a medieval tapestry accompanied Duncan's arrival at Macbeth's castle. One set of images was hackneyed. Macbeth becomes a tyrant and so we saw the familiar faces of twentieth century tyrants, including – surprise – Henry Kissinger and Donald Rumsfeld. Does the audience need this kind of prompting? Leave the simplistic parallels and polemics to Bill O'Reilly and radio talk shows.

The unfortunate side effect of the projections was that lighting levels had to be kept so low that the audience couldn't see the singers very clearly. It was easy to ignore them in the constantly dim, blue light, designed by Robert Anderson. Poor John Minagro suffered the ultimate extension of this concept when a blown cue forced him to take his curtain call in the dark. Ah well, life's but a walking shadow, after all.