Near the conclusion of the opera, his deeply moving lamentations Pieta', rispetto, amore and La vita!. #Which is not a verdi opera based on a shakespeare play full#Karagiozov's tremendous vocal gifts are on full display in his portrayal of Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is guilty of hideous acts, but it is only toward the end of this story that she feels piercing guilt it is remorse, conveyed in wrenching but exquisite music and singing, that reveals Lady Macbeth as human, flawed though she is. But his call for a voice capable of expressing even the ugliest aspects of human nature is answered magnificently in her performance.Īnd it is fitting that the loveliest expression of her great vocal gift floats ethereally from the stage in her aria, Una macchia e' qui tuttora ("The spot is still here"). It's hard to imagine that any great singer of Major's caliber would intentionally sing in a "hoarse, stifled, hollow voice," as Verdi desired. He was after a voice that signaled a brutality, a window into the heart of evil. Verdi was said to dismiss the notion of beautiful vocalization in the character of Lady Macbeth. Earlier this season, she performed the role of Lucrezia Contarini in Verdi's "I due Foscari." With each performance, her star quality shone, and her portrayal of Lady Macbeth is no exception. Major made her debut with West Bay as Donna Anna in Mozart's "Don Giovanni" and went on to perform the challenging role of Norma in Bellini's opera of the same name. They are both huge talents who command an equally huge stage presence. Taking the lead roles are singers now familiar to West Bay audiences: Baritone Krassen Karagiozov and soprano Christina Major. Like the original play, it contains riches of witches, the unwelcome ghost of the murdered Banquo at a banquet, and, of course, that damned spot. Verdi's "Macbeth," which premiered in 1847 in Florence, Italy, was the first of three operas the composer wrote based on Shakespeare's plays. While the tale of the Macbeths and their evil deeds is anything but uplifting, the telling of it soars in this production, thanks to a stellar lead cast and the skilled stage and music direction that local opera goers have come to expect. The results are not pretty.īut even the ugliest aspects of human nature can be transformed into great art, a feat accomplished on a historical scale by Shakespeare and Verdi, and on a more transitory but nevertheless grand scale by our local opera company, which is staging its gripping production at the Lucie Stern Theatre through Sunday. The story of the Thane of Cawdor and his wife, Lady Macbeth, is a bloody tale indeed, a petri dish in which Shakespeare unleashes naked ambition and power lust to mingle with human hearts unguided by a moral compass. Previous NextĪre you familiar with Shakespeare's "Macbeth" and planning to see a performance of West Bay Opera's production of Giuseppe Verdi's opera of the same name? An excellent decision - and knowing the Shakespearean plot you won't be surprised by the dominant color presiding on the well-ordered stage: Red. Krassen Karagiozov as Macbeth and Christina Major as Lady Macbeth, whose evil deeds eventually do them in.
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