Macbeth (DVD)

Live from the Royal Opera House, London

Composer : Guiseppe Verdi

Librettist : Piave after Shakespeare’s tragedy

Conductor : Antonio Pappano

Production : Phyllida Lloyd
Performers :
Macbeth: Simon Keenlyside
Banquo: Raymond Aceto
Lady Macbeth: Liudmyla Monastyrska
Macduff: Dimitri Pittas
Malcolm: Steven Ebel
Lady-in-waiting:  Elisabeth Meister
Doctor: Lukas Jakobski

Sound bites

George Hall, Opera Magazine 4/2012

” … Of the four central roles, Keenlyside provides an imaginative realization of Macbeth’s weak and increasingly fragmented character, sung with distinction, if not in a conventional Verdi baritone; he nevertheless makes his lyric approach work well. … Keenlyside, Monastyrska and Aceto give short interviews as bonuses, none of them having a great deal of interest to say. Antonio Pappano, taking rehearsals, is more articulate about the balancing of competing musical forces he has to contend with as conductor.  …”

William R. Braun, Opera News, July 2012

“An intensely musical performance by Simon Keenlyside in the title role and a deeply considered production by Phyllida Lloyd, each of them attuned to the sound and the sense of Verdi’s music, put this Macbeth at the top of the DVD competition for this tricky opera. Keenlyside’s performance is highly detailed in vocal terms. He can be dreamy orpensive, as well as tormented, as the role requires. The dagger monologue is sung with reserves of breath, and the final section of the
Act II finale, ‘Sangue a me,’ is sung with the sort of Verdian legato that is supposedly extinct today. Verdi provided an unusually wide range of expression marks for this role, even more than in many of his later operas, and Keenlyside has worked them all into his portrayal as if he had thought up the ideas himself. As an actor, he gives every indication that he would be capable of carrying the role in Shakespeare’s play.  …”