Verdi - Macbeth / Sinopoli, Bruson, Zampieri, Deutsche Oper Berlin

Rating:
Summary: Una voz chillona
Review: En español decimos "voz chillona" cuando el timbre es más agudo de lo necesario. Si hubiese recordado que la voz que no me dejaba llegar al final de la Fanciulla del West era la de esta misma cantante, no hubiese adquirido esta versión de Macbeth. Durante todo el tiempo no hago más que pensar cómo hubiese gozado escuchando a María Callas en un papel de tanta fuerza. Haré un esfuerzo nuevamente para degustar los intrigantes agudos de alguien que intriga tras el trono.

Rating:
Summary: Una voz chillona
Review: En español decimos "voz chillona" cuando el timbre es más agudo de lo necesario. Si hubiese recordado que la voz que no me dejaba llegar al final de la Fanciulla del West era la de esta misma cantante, no hubiese adquirido esta versión de Macbeth. Durante todo el tiempo no hago más que pensar cómo hubiese gozado escuchando a María Callas en un papel de tanta fuerza. Haré un esfuerzo nuevamente para degustar los intrigantes agudos de alguien que intriga tras el trono.

Rating:
Summary: Buy another version!
Review: This is a very boring version of 'Macbeth'. Only Renato Bruson sings really well. Mara Zampieri is a good actress, but her voice wasn't in her best day. Neill Schicoff is really horrible here and James Morris isn't very well too.
Ronconi's production is really boring. There aren't anything in scene, only a real chair and some panels.
I don't like Sinoppoli very much.
In resume, don't spend your money with this, buy another version.

Rating:
Summary: Screw thy courage to the sticking place!
Review: This production from Berlin in 1987 finds conductor Sinopoli and team in good form. Sinopoli's conducting is very rhythmic and exciting overall, but tends to be somewhat rushed in places. The orchestra and chorus do a good job and one can hardly fault the ensemble work of all the performers involved.

The production is traditional (and also minimalist). Yes, true emotion is seldom touched on here, but I'd rather have this type of melodramatic approach than the kind of contrived production 'concept' to which one is so often subjected. The costumes are realistic to the period, but it is a very static production: note that as the aria begins the character usually takes centre stage! That being said, I have to mention that there is something very effective about dressing Macbeth and Lady M almost entirely in red: to indicate the innocent blood they will/have shed?

Renato Bruson as Macbeth sings the role very well, and one wonders if anyone can surpass this achievement. However, do not expect a dramatically compelling interpretation.

Mara Zampieri has a sinister enough voice for Lady M. She has a magnificent technique: good coloratura and an exceptional trill. For me her interpretation does not match Callas's Lady M, as Zampieri lacks two things: she is often out of tune on acuti and her interpretation is not very subtle. And nit-picking: she omits the top D-flat in the sleep-walking scene. Nonetheless, we can be grateful for her presence in the cast.

The supporting cast, which includes James Morris and Denis O'Neill, sing well, and I cannot think of better 'comprimarias' than those two.

"Macbeth", for me is not a very easy work, like "Trovatore", "Otello" or even "Don Carlos", to understand and love. But with "Macbeth" (specifically in Lady M's music) Verdi holds up a beacon of things to come from his gifted pen.

Rating:
Summary: Probably the best available version
Review: While not perfect, this is a very good production of Macbeth. Mara Zampieri is an almost perfect Lady Macbeth, although her overdone facial expressions, while understandable in a theatre setting can be somewhat offputting in closeup. Her singing, however, meets the demands of the role quite well. Verdi wanted a singing actress who could express villainy in her voice rather than just a beautiful voice, and Zampieri fills this role well. Renato Bruson is also a very believable Macbeth. James Morris as Banquo is somewhat wooden, but the main, really the only major, drawback is Sinopoli. His conducting is quite good, but he hogs too much of the screen. The camera focusses on him not only in the overture and preludes to the various acts, but also at times when the chorus is singing on stage. While obviously the conductor is important in every opera, it is the action on stage that one wants to see, not the conductor, especially a hyperactive one.

Rating:
Summary: Probably the best available version
Review: While not perfect, this is a very good production of Macbeth. Mara Zampieri is an almost perfect Lady Macbeth, although her overdone facial expressions, while understandable in a theatre setting can be somewhat offputting in closeup. Her singing, however, meets the demands of the role quite well. Verdi wanted a singing actress who could express villainy in her voice rather than just a beautiful voice, and Zampieri fills this role well. Renato Bruson is also a very believable Macbeth. James Morris as Banquo is somewhat wooden, but the main, really the only major, drawback is Sinopoli. His conducting is quite good, but he hogs too much of the screen. The camera focusses on him not only in the overture and preludes to the various acts, but also at times when the chorus is singing on stage. While obviously the conductor is important in every opera, it is the action on stage that one wants to see, not the conductor, especially a hyperactive one.

Rating:
Summary: Zampieri's Lady Macbeth is greater than Callas'!
Review: Zampieri's Lady Macbeth is greater than Callas'! Even Toscanini (who as a traditionalist wasn't one of Callas' fans) found her timbre suitable for Lady Macbeth and wanted to do it with her (she did not express interest in singing for him). This was one of callas' greatest interpretations - very strong on melodrama - and Zampieri is the first to surpass it! Zampieri's hypnotic, analytic, 100% pitch controlled singing/acting projects the cold-blooded murderess and the sense of horror. With conductor Sinopoli the concentration is intense and the singers really reflect on every note. I feel that those who refuse to accept that Zampieri is a great modern dramatic star are reactionaries. Why, oh why doesn't she record more? Is she related to the tenor Giuseppe Zampieri who was active in the 50's and 60's (he sang the Italian singer in the film version of Der Rosenkavalier for Karajan)?