Opera Queensland opened their 2023 season with Macbeth in Concert, an exciting and engrossing semi-staged production of Shakespeare’s timeless tragedy scored by Verdi. Directed by Laura Hansford in her mainstage directing debut, the performance featured some incredible vocal performances as well as the power of 60 musicians and 60 singers onstage.
Shakespeare’s shortest tragedy, Macbeth follows the titular character as he puts his faith in a witches’ prophecy that he will become king. Consumed by the pursuit of power and urged onward by his equally ambitious wife, Macbeth kills the king and ascends to the throne, but soon both Macbeths descend into a dizzying spiral of tyranny, paranoia, and murder. Guiseppe Verdi’s Macbeth is an opera in four acts, with an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave and additions by Andrea Maffei. Written for the Teatro della Pergola in Florence, it premiered in 1847 and was the first Shakespeare play that Verdi adapted into an opera.
Projected images on the round screen above the stage, with the surtitles overlaid, helped to establish the tone and setting of each scene, along with a number of simple but striking elements of set design, such as black gravel on each side of the orchestra and a dead branch poised like a dagger and hanging ominously over the centre of the stage. Lighting design by Christine Felmingham and costuming designed by Karen Cochet & Bianca Bulley further added to the contrast of dark and light.
Sixty musicians from the Queensland Symphony Orchestra performed Verdi’s rich score, full of depth and colour, conducted with passion and expressiveness by Chief Conductor Umberto Clerici in his operatic conducting debut. The Opera Queensland Chorus, led by Chorus Master and Head of Music Narelle French, brought further drama and movement to the stage. Despite being a lengthy performance, with a run time of almost three hours, the energy of the musicians and the singers remained high throughout.
Argentine-Australian baritone José Carbó imbued the lead role of Macbeth with gravitas, but it was soprano Anna-Louise Cole as the ruthless Lady Macbeth who was the standout performance for me. Making her Brisbane debut in this production, Cole’s voice gave me goosebumps from her first scene, and she sustained this calibre of performance across Lady Macbeth’s full hour of singing, including three arias. Cole and Carbó had an excellent emotional connection. Rosario La Spina was also impressive, with the emotional performance of Macduff’s grief at the loss of his family being particularly memorable.
Opera Queensland’s Macbeth in Concert was consistently engaging, with captivating performances and striking design heightening this classic tale of tragedy.
Macbeth in Concert played at the QPAC Concert Hall from 9 – 11 March 2023
For ticketing and further information, visit the Opera Queensland website
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