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OPERA REVIEW
North Bay Opera
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Revisiting the Source
By James Keolker
Looking back as an old man upon his career in the Italian lyric theatre, Verdi wrote that, of his 26 operas, he was most fond of Macbeth, written in 1847, when he was an eager 34. And while the work gave him instant popularity (its premiere was blessed by some 38 curtain calls), he felt the necessity to revise it for Paris nearly two decades later. And it is that revision that is most frequently produced.
So, what might that original version have been like? That was the challenge taken up by North Bay Opera this past Saturday evening, when the valiant Fairfield company presented its “West Coast premiere” of Verdi's original.
Having the biggest effect by far were the spirited conducting and the dedicated chorus. Conductor Philip Kuttner kept Verdi's cauldron of staccato rhythms, flowing waltzes, and brassy outbursts under tight control while passionately building its climaxes, which Verdi offered aplenty. What Kuttner made evident was just how Janus-like this original score was, simultaneously looking back to Nabucco and Ernani while forward to Rigoletto and Il Trovatore. If anything, the Parisian revisions smoothed out these stylistic differences.
The chorus contributed many outstanding passages, most particularly the grandiose Act I finale (“Schiudi, inferno, la bocca ed inghiotti”) when the midnight murder of King Duncan is discovered, and again at the climax of the banquet when Banquo makes his ghostly appearance (“Biechi arcani!”). And even after a long evening (this production ran over three and a half hours), the choristers brought the opera to a sonorous close, vigorously saluting Malcolm as their new king (“Salve, o re!”). Their director Sam Schieber deserves much credit. Verdi knew, of course, what Shakespeare kept hidden: Banquo would make a far better king, and Lady Macbeth a far more interesting leading character. The singers of both these roles certainly made that evident. Bass Clifton Romig commanded a kingly appearance, and he knows how to deliver a Verdian phrase, lifting the voice atop the doubling strings, and breathing easily with the cadence. His “Come dal ciel precipita” (Oh, how heaven darkens) was so beautifully sung that his listeners hated to see him murdered and not be heard again. Soprano Pamela Hicks was a definitive Lady Macbeth: loathesome, fearsome, and pathetic. In this version she can also be cute and coy. It took Hicks a while to hit her stride, but her initial cabaletta, “Or tutti sorgete, ministri infernali” (Arise, you ministers of hell) was delivered with fiercesome expression. And perhaps nowhere else except in La Traviata does Verdi demand such sudden shifts of head and chest voice as he does in her brindisi (“Si comli il calice," Come, fill the cup), which Hicks delivered with great style and élan. While this version also gives Lady Macbeth a giddy Act-Two aria d'agilità (“Trionfa! secure alfine”), it is her sleepwalking scene in Act Three that is the vocal test and highpoint of the role. Hicks was both elegant and terrifying for “Una macchia è qui tuttora” (Yet here's a spot), delivered in a mad scene worthy of Lucia, crowning her vocal achievement with a finely spun fil di voce.
The role of the avenging Macduff was considerably strengthened by Sean Panikkar, a current Adler Fellow from San Francisco Opera. Panikkar's “Ah, la paterna mano” (Ah, a father's hand was not here) was a master class in Verdian delivery: beautifully phrased, elegantly sung, and meaningful. And his rousing call-to-arms “La patria tradita” (Our country has been betrayed) was thrilling. He was justly awarded with prolonged applause. Joe Kinyon did his best as Macbeth, but his baritone remained dry throughout the evening. And while he worked hard at his role, he unfortunately never eased into its elegance or malevolence, his big arias having only a labored effect. His habit of overarticulating likewise robbed him of believability and did nothing to smooth his phrasing. Olivia Stoddard, Claudia Siefer, and Heather McFadden sang the witches well amidst the requisite thunder and lightning. Jonathan Smucker sang Malcolm, Isaiah Musik-Ayala the physician, and Kathleen Sisco a charming lady-in-waiting. Mention must be made of nine-year-old Marius Ruff-Long as the silent Fleance, his pathetic clinging to his father before his murder deeply moving.
Phil Lowery's stage direction was conventional and crowded, and he seemed not to hear Verdi's motivic repeat of the witches' prophecy throughout the score, for no character ever reacted to them. The apparitions of dead kings and future troubles was impressively staged with fog and richly costumed by Vivian Roubel and Carol La Novara. But Marc Scott and Cassady Toles' rocky settings created long waits. Since Verdi always structured his dramas in two contrasting scenes, no matter the version, a unit set would have solved the lengthy scene shifts and given the opera the uninterrupted flow that it demands. North Bay Opera should certainly be congratulated for taking up the challenge and making this most interesting “original” available. The opera will be repeated at the Fairfield Center for the Creative Arts on March 15, 18, and 19.
(Dr. James Keolker is a frequent writer and lecturer on opera, as well as a professor of opera studies at the Fromm Institute for Lifelong Learning at the University of San Francisco.)
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