Met School Membership Program. Macbeth. Teacher Study Guide

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Met School Membership Program

Macbeth

Teacher Study Guide

Metropolitan Opera Guild

Education Department

70 Lincoln Center Plaza

New York, NY 10023

www.operaed.org

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Macbeth

Performance Information

Music: Giuseppe Verdi

Libretto: Francesco Maria Piave, after Shakespeare’s play, as translated by Giulio Carcano

Date of Performance: Saturday, January 12, 2008

Timing: 1:30-5:10pm ***

1 intermission

Act I: 82 minutes

Intermission: 26 minutes Act II: 62 minutes

Cast:

Lady Macbeth: Maria Guleghina Macbeth: Željko Luĉić

Macduff: Dimitri Pittas Banquo: John Relyea Conductor: James Levine Production: Adrian Noble Set Designer: Mark Thompson Costume Designer: Mark Thompson Lighting Designer: Jean Kalman Choreographer: Sue Lefton

Special Thanks: Lou Barrella, William C. Bassell, Judith Jonathan Dzik, Zeke Hecker, Mike Minard

In addition, warm thanks to all MSM members who gave us insightful feedback about the program. Your comments and materials have been instrumental in creating this guide.

_______________________________

***Please note that the ending time of this rehearsal is approximate. This is a working rehearsal, and so the conductor may wish to make some last-minute changes to the

performance before opening night. Please plan on staying 15 minutes past this ending time to allow for any conductor changes.

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WHAT IS

OPERA

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A NOT-SO-BRIEF HISTORY OF

OPERA AND ITS PRODUCTION

Opera, unlike almost all other art forms, was invented. It all started around 1600, when a group of men in Florence decided to revive the ancient Greek tradition of performing plays by singing every word. The culprits were the Florentine Camerata. In 1600, the word of the day was

polyphony: popular composers mastered difficult, mathematical rules that allowed them to layer many melodic lines on top of each other, producing new

and increasingly striking harmonies. Then, suddenly,

Camerata composers like Peri, Corsi, Caccini and Monteverdi starting writing music that was just the opposite– one singer singing one melody with minimal instrumental support—

monody. Instead of using many overlapping voices to explain moments of extreme emotion, Camerata composers displayed all that feeling with only one voice – the aria was born. But monody was useful for a second, more radical purpose: to connect the arias, by having singers sing speech-like rhythms to move the plot along or convey dialogue. When they combined this new discovery, recitative with the arias they already invented, opera was ready to roll.

Man is the measure of all things

The invention of opera was the perfect capstone to the

musical Renaissance period. During this time, many musicians reading Greek texts for inspiration focused on Plato’s doctrine ofethos – the idea that music does not merely depict emotions but can arouse them. According to this

doctrine, music had the potential to be more than just a tribute to God – the right music could alter men’s feelings and actions. Some people worried that the doctrine of ethos only worked when the music was perfectly aligned with the words. Therefore, a madrigal, in which active polyphony meant that the words could not easily be distinguished, did not have the same potential to change someone’s emotions. Many of these critics were members of the

Florentine Camerata, and they believed that monody was the answer. Monody not only allowed the music to transform the listener, but it also asserted the humanist values of the day– that one voice alone has the power to make real change. Many early opera writers underscored this point by choosing the myth of Orpheus, both showing and telling the audience the power of the solo voice.

Front Page of Le Nuove Musiche, the first book to introduce monody

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The late Baroque gets serious

6 very seriously. In Italian oper

Many of the world’s first operas were part of a genre called opera seria: starring gods and heroes dressed in elaborate costumes singing in front of

state-of-the-art backdrops painted to look like 3D landscapes (trompe l’oeil). Although opera seria echoes Greek drama in its subject matter, setting, and unity of time and place, opera seria writers were innovators too, frequently insisting on the importance of Christian justice and forgiveness. In fact, many opera serias conclude with a happy ending. These distinctly Baroque adaptations were made for the aristocratic audiences, who took the moral lessons in opera a seria, these orderly endings had to be achieved by the human characters, without the intervention of gods– providing an idealized model for rulers to follow. A spoonful of sugar made the medicine go down: these operas were an entertaining way to remind oneself of the responsibility of leadership. The attempts at tidiness in the libretto, as well as the often formulaic nature of the music, caused many later opera writers to disregard opera seria as outmoded or inflexible.

A Baroque opera house in Switzerland

It’s a hit!

An example of Baroque costume Opera boomed in popularity– 35 opera houses were

built in the twenty years after its invention– and the production teams didn’t have time to (or care to) keep up. Creating an “ideal world” is expensive– trompe l’oiel sets with multiple-point perspective, lavish costumes, complex stage machinery and even blocking were re-used from production to production. An opera set in ancient Rome would look exactly the same as an opera set in England. The music was also interchangeable! Singers were allowed to substitute arias from other operas at any point so long as the central emotion remained the same.

Opera seria is less frequently performed today not only because it is regarded as stiff and overly formal but because the music itself requires specialized singers. Male opera seria heroes sing what is for us unusually high. In their day, these roles were sung by castrati: men who had been castrated before puberty in order to preserve their high voices. Castrati were the best-trained and most popular singers in the opera seria world. Castrati became the first opera stars– commanding astronomical fees and enticing throngs of female admirers.

Pretension Police! Classical composers develop opera for the people

By the end of the 18th_{century, things weren’t looking}

good for European aristocrats. Revolutionary rumblings were spreading through the French middle class, and

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ut with the old, in with the new

t opera seria down to size influenced

el Canto sets off vocal fireworks

ra seria waned after 1800, composers in

pera may seem as if it took forever to write, but many bel

iva VERDI!

seppe Verdi wrote highly inventive, impressively tuneful, and intensely dramatic operas which are some of the most frequently performed England already felt the blow of the American Revolution. Forward-thinking Enlightenment composers changed with the times, writing operas for the increasingly literate middle class. Some, like composer C. W. Gluck and his librettist Calzabigi, tried to do so by stripping away the excess of opera seria to form a more direct, personal message: reform opera. Other composers championed an existing alternative to opera seria: opera buffa, or comic opera. Some librettists, like da Ponte, used dramas with revolutionary political messages to create their opera buffa libretti, like the anti-aristocratic Le Nozze di Figaro. To make opera more accessible, composers sometimes wrote opera in the country’s vernacular or included spoken dialogue in a singspiel or opera comique (German or French operas, respectively, which include spoken dialogue). Some writers turned opera into something new altogether– the

ballad opera– a comic play with musical interludes set to popular tunes sung by the actors themselves, the predecessor of American musical theatre.

O

The same reforms which brough

production: gods no longer needed to be hoisted in with cranes, and heroes did not need to don expensive-looking armor. Audiences wanted a show to be realistic. Many sets portrayed the insides of houses and the outdoors, while costumes began to draw from contemporary as well as historical dress. Even French opera houses, the last stronghold of frilly aristocratic opera, began to strip down their style when Gluck’s reform operas became popular in France. B

Even though the composition of ope

the Romantic period were still interested in ornate, beautiful singing– sometimes at the expense of dramatic plots. Italian composers like Donizetti, Bellini, and Rossini invented a new elaborate, lyric style called bel canto. Like opera seria arias, bel canto arias usually followed a predictable formula- a smooth, sustained cantabile section followed by a bravura section where the singer got a chance to show off. The Romantic era put a premium on personal artistic expression– singers were allowed and even expected to improvise ornaments onstage.

Under pressure Each bel canto o

canto operas were actually written in less than a month. Each Italian city-state supported several opera houses, and each wanted to outdo its neighboring provinces. Every season, an opera house would employ a resident composer, who was expected to rapidly write operas custom tailored to the demands of both the house’s impresario and the individual singers. Sometimes, composers were forced to change huge aspects of their work with very little notice. When the impresario of the Teatro Argentino in Rome told Rossini that he did not like the original overture to Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Rossini simply swapped in another overture that he had already written– which has become some of the most beloved music of the entire opera.

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8 On stage?

erdi often wrote in a style called grand opera, a term which has as much to s. Grand opera came from France,

ichard Wagner changed everything. Though he was Verdi’s exact ic period— both composing from about

agner isn’t just famous for his epic operas; he alled gesamtkunstwerk, or

today. But even Verdi didn’t come out of nowhere– many of the themes expressed in his operas are great examples of late Romantic ideology. His works explore the deep tension between individual needs and duty to society, perhaps the most important conflict for artists in the 19th_{century. His}

involvement in the Italian Risorgimento– the unification of individual city-states into one nation– reflects a resurgence of nationalism all over Europe. During the Romantic period, Russian, Czech, Hungarian, and many other nations’ musical styles really came into their own when composers like Mussorgsky, Janacek and Dvorak wrote operas culling from the rich folk musical traditions of their respective countries.

Lions and Tigers and Bears: V

do with how opera looks as how it sound

where opera productions were the Hollywood blockbusters of their day. Opera-goers craved novelty, seeking increasingly heart-wrenching plot-lines, complex stage illusions and inventive orchestration.

Productions worked with huge budgets and attracted massive crowds. The “super-sizing” of opera’s production demanded some re-organization backstage. The previously subordinate role of the stage director (then called the metteur en scene) took on much more importance, as they had to control the vast numbers of singers with small parts, chorus members, supernumeraries, and animals who flooded the stage; to ensure that performers knew how to respond correctly to special effects; and to see that principals were not lost in the huge new sets. It’s not over until the fat lady sings

A production of Aida

R

contemporary during the late Romant

1845-85— they wrote in very different styles. Wagner wrote operas with continuously shifting music– no distinctions between aria and recitative– where the voice is just one thread in the complex musical fabric. Like many German Romantic composers, Wagner made full use of the expanded orchestra to create a complex chromatic atmosphere full of strange and unexpected chords– sometimes beautiful and sometimes upsetting. In order to keep listeners from getting lost during his extremely long operas, Wagner associated short musical fragments with characters or ideas, and strung these pieces together to help tell the story. This invention– the leitmotif– changed opera forever.

Gesamtkunst-what? W

introduced a theory c

“total art work.” He wanted people who saw his operas to enter a fully realized artistic dream world– and he did it all himself. It started when Wagner traveled to Bayreuth, Bavaria to look at a possible

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orchbearers: Strauss & Puccini

sometimes celebrated as the most supreme

erismo!

0s, an operatic style called verismo arose from a growing trend

hinking outside the box

ury, opera’s production was the subject of visual opera house in which to perform his famous Ring Cycle. Dissatisfied with the existing options, he made plans for a completely new opera house for Bayreuth, the Festspeilhaus, which continues to produce his work to this day. Wagner wrote all his own libretti and supervised the construction of his sets and costumes. He even designed his own curtain which could be pulled back instead of up, to further invite the audience to enter his magical world. As if that wasn’t enough, Wagner invented his own tuba to play notes that no instrument in the orchestra could reach.

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The works of Wagner and Verdi are

accomplishments of composition possible in opera – how could anyone attempt to write opera after such titans? Yet two bold, inspired composers of the late 19th_{century decided to see what else could be done with the art form. Richard}

Strauss followed Wagner in the celebrated German tradition, creating operas that featured huge orchestras, adventurous harmonies, and libretti that were scandalous or intellectual—or both. In Italy, Giacomo Puccini picked up where Verdi left off, composing operas that featured gorgeous melodies, strong characterizations, and crowd-pleasing, action-packed plots.

V

In the 189

towards stark realism in French painting and literature. Artists became increasingly interested in the strenuous lives of the middle or lower-class, attempting to recreate their struggles accurately and objectively. The Italians caught on, writing plays depicting the local customs and dialect of unsophisticated characters without sentimentality. Soon, composers began to use these literary models as material for new verismo operas– the first being Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana. The music of verismo opera is as forthright as the libretto: direct and dramatic, uninterested in showoff-y arias. Puccini often wouldn’t write overtures, because he felt that they were an unnatural ornament.

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In the early twentieth cent

art’s trend toward abstraction. Recoiling from the realism of war and the colossal death count it wrought upon Europe, many operas chose minimal sets to evoke rather than connote settings. Booming post-modern literary theory encouraged designers to treat operas as ahistorical works, often updating or removing elements which fixed a production to a previous time or specific place.

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You can teach an old dog new tricks

Through the second half of the twentieth century, opera proved that it could stretch to encompass rapidly shifting cultural values and expanding definitions of music itself. Schöenberg and Berg adapted their twelve-tone compositional rules to opera with surprisingly popular results; Berg’s Wozzeck is a staple of the modern canon. The multiculturalism which has become a hallmark of twentieth-century life has had its stamp on opera–

notably with Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, bringing popular and pervasive jazz and blues sounds to the opera stage. Tan Dun’s The First Emperor, which premieres at the Met in December 2006, is a much-anticipated union of conventional Chinese opera and folk song and the Western operatic tradition. Who knows what the rest of the twenty-first century will bring!

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WHO DOES WHAT AT THE

METROPOLITAN OPERA

Far more goes into an opera than what you see on stage during a performance. Hundreds of singers, musicians, dancers, actors, designers, stagehands and many other Met employees work incredibly hard to prepare for an opera– sometimes, many years in advance. One of the exciting things about attending a Director’s Rehearsal is that you can see all of the people that are usually behind-the-scenes doing their jobs right in front of your eyes.

The conductor

The conductor is the music director of an opera; he or she has the last word on all musical decisions. One of the biggest decisions is the speed of the music, or

tempo, which he or she conveys to the orchestra by keeping time with a baton or hand (though the baton tells the orchestra other things, too). The conductor also determines the balance of the music– which parts to emphasize and bring out. No matter what musical interpretations the conductor makes, he or she must be sure to keep the orchestra and singers together and to ensure that the singers can be heard above the orchestra.

According to James Levine, the true job of the conductor is to “get the music’s character right. You never hear of composers complaining about inadequate technical execution, or that the horns were cracking or the wind chords weren’t together. What you hear composers complaining about is falsification of what they’ve written, a misunderstanding of the point, the spirit, the… substance of the piece, of what it is all about.”

The stage director

The stage director is sometimes called the producer in opera, but they are more like the director of a play or movie than a theatrical producer. Just as the conductor makes musical decisions, the stage director has the final word on all theatrical choices. First, the stage director decides the over-all concept for a production. Then he or she works with a design team of the set designer,

costume designer, choreographer, and lighting designer to create images and moods that convey their interpretation of the opera to the audience visually. He or she also collaborates with the conductor to make sure that the music and the staged show complement each other and create a unified performance. The director helps singers develop their characters and express them in keeping with the spirit of the production. Since one director cannot assist many characters at once and because rehearsal time is very short, the stage director is aided by several assistant stage directors, who stand on stage and literally walk characters through their movements in rehearsals.

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The technical director

The designers, who are all hired to work on a single production, answer to a permanent member of The Met’s staff– the technical director, currently Joseph Clark. The technical director oversees the physical side of design. He or she makes sure that the designs that artists submit are brought into reality– that the sets are compact enough to be stored, light in weight enough to be changed quickly, and strong enough to support themselves. Once the technical director gives approval, The Met’s resident, unionized carpenters, painters, set and

prop makers, costume shop staff, and wigmakers construct everything that goes onstage in a given production. New productions at The Met are designed to last for twenty years… the technical director makes sure that they will.

Principal singers

An opera singer’s work begins long before he or she is hired by The Met. For their voices to be able to fill enormous spaces without amplification, opera singers must train for many years. This is partly because they are trying to isolate and train their vocal cords: a mechanism about the size of your little finger nail. This is made doubly hard by the fact that unlike other musicians, singers can’t see their instrument, so all of their learning has to be by sensation.

Unlike almost every other type of performer, opera singers must memorize their entire part before rehearsals even begin. Fortunately for most singers, they are not singing a new role every single time; they often refresh roles that they have sung before. An opera singer has a repertoire of hundreds of hours of music that they can sing professionally after a very short period of preparation. Singers also have to be able to pronounce and understand the many languages in which operas are written– Italian, German, French, Russian; even Czech! Opera singers also have to be convincing actors, taking on some of the most complex characters in literature. They sing and act while onstage under hot lights, performing blocking that can be awkward or difficult. Opera singers have to be able to sing running, jumping, dancing and even lying down! Period costumes like hoop skirts, cloaks and corsets can also be hot and

uncomfortable. Opera aficionados have good reason to obsess over their favorite opera stars!

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A QUICK GUIDE TO VOICE PARTS

Soprano: Sopranos have the highest voices. They usually play the heroines of an opera. This means they often have lots of show-off arias to sing, and get to fall in love and / or die more often than other

female voice types.

Mezzo-soprano, or mezzo: This is the middle female voice, and has a darker, warmer sound than the soprano. Mezzos spend a lot of their time playing mothers and villainesses, although sometimes they get to play seductive heroines. Mezzos also play young men on occasion – these are called trouser roles.

Contralto, or alto: The lowest female voice. Contralto is a rare voice type. Altos usually portray older females or character parts like witches and old gypsies.

Countertenor: Also known as alto, this is the highest male voice, and another vocal rarity. Countertenors sing with about the same range as a contralto. Countertenor roles are most common in baroque

opera, but some more modern composers write parts for countertenors too.

Tenor: If there are no countertenors on stage, then the highest male voice in opera is the tenor. Tenors are usually the heroes who get the girl or die horribly in the attempt.

Baritone: The middle male voice. In comic opera, the baritone is often the ringleader of whatever naughtiness is going on, but in tragic opera, he’s more likely to play the villain.

Bass: The lowest male voice. Low voices usually suggest age and wisdom in serious opera, and basses usually play Kings, fathers, and grandfathers. In comic opera basses often portray old characters that are foolish or laughable.

Vocal coaches

Fortunately, singers get help. The Met has voice coaches who help singers pronounce words, make sure that their singing style is in keeping with the style of the production and smooth out any rough spots. But the coaches don’t teach singers technique! To get to the Met, a singer must already be very accomplished.

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The prompter

The best coaches are asked to be prompters. Prompters stand in a hooded box at the foot of the stage and help give singers cues, keep them in time with the orchestra, and remind them of any blocking or music they may have forgotten. Most importantly, the prompter must know the particular singers and be able to anticipate their problems before they arise. Because they must memorize all the music, words and blocking in an opera, the prompter is one of the hardest jobs at the opera house.

The orchestra

The orchestra plays the music of the opera. You can see them in the pit, below the foot of the stage. The Met has a regular orchestra with 92 members, as well as 44 associates who are scheduled as needed. Often opera orchestras include special effects specific to the opera being performed. Sometimes you can see unusual instruments in the pit. Some previously used at The Met include airplane propellers, type writers, and guillotines!

A QUICK GUIDE TO THE FAMILIES OF THE ORCHESTRA

Strings: violins, violas, cellos, double bass

Woodwind: piccolos, flutes, oboes, clarinets and bassoons

Brass: trumpets, trombones, French horns, baritones and tubas Percussion: bass drums, kettle drums, timpani, xylophones, piano, bells, gongs, cymbals, chimes

The chorus

The chorus at the Met isn’t a consolation prize; it’s an intense, full-time job. Unlike the principals, the 82 member chorus (sometimes bigger for operas like

Aida and Boris Godunov) must have perfect ensemble– anything less than immaculate attacks and cut-offs would detract from the production. The Met chorus has to learn large chunks of music for each opera, spend hours in rehearsals and sometimes perform in several different operas a week! In each opera, chorus members have to remember just as much as the soloists – the only difference is that they sing together rather than on their own.

The dance corps

The Met has a regular corps of sixteen dancers. The Met can also call on more than sixty associate dancers based on the style of dance required by each opera, such as classical ballet, flamenco, or modern dance.

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The stage manager

In order to keep all of the elements of opera under control, the stage manager must be highly skilled in many different areas. This makes being an opera stage manager a much tougher position than a theatrical stage manager. He or she must follow the score throughout the opera to give all the technical cues, as well as be an expert in stage craft, making sure that the lights, costumes, sets, stage machinery and choreography work on stage. A stage manager must also be able to cope with the enormous pressure of keeping such a complicated operation running smoothly. There are usually assistant stage managers as well, who not only assist the stage manager in cueing lights, special effects and scene changes but make sure that artists, props, furniture, and costumes are backstage when needed.

The crews

Many people assist the artistic designers in making their designs look great.

Stagehands set up the stage, while flymen raise and lower sets fixed to the grid, or “fly” above the stage. Costumers, make-up artists and wig staff

make the principals look stage-ready.

But that’s not all!

In many respects, The Metropolitan Opera is a business just like any other. It needs many administrators, publicity representatives, a technology support staff, development advisors, and even security personnel. But because it is the Met, there are some employees that you would never find at your average business– like the archivists, Met Titles writers and the many people that work together to make the weekly radio broadcasts happen. 1,500 people work for the Met every season… no wonder it is considered one of the greatest opera houses in the world!

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THE COMPOSER

Giuseppe Verdi

The People’s Composer

Verdi was born in 1813. Though he was not a peasant, his family wasn’t rich—his parents were innkeepers in Roncole. Apprenticed to the town organist at a young age, Verdi showed enough aptitude to pursue studies in the nearby town of Busseto. His education was underwritten by a fatherly benefactor, greengrocer Antonio Barezzi. Barezzi helped Verdi go to Milan, where he was rejected by the conservatory on the grounds that he was 19, which was considered too old, and not proficient enough at keyboard playing. So, Verdi studied privately with an accompanist at Milan’s famous La Scala opera house and attended the opera regularly. In 1836, Verdi married Barezzi's daughter Margherita. Three years later, his first opera, Oberto, was staged at La Scala.

Giuseppe Verdi

An Unfortunate Series of Events...

Then tragedy struck. At the beginning of April 1840 Verdi's little boy fell ill and died. His young daughter died just two days later. In June his wife Margherita fell ill, and before long she had also passed away. Verdi's entire life was shattered. He returned home to Busseto. He even considered abandoning music.

We Have a Winner!

It wasn't until two years later, when Verdi discovered the libretto Nabucco, that his interest in opera revived. The libretto told the story of the exiled Hebrew people, who eventually triumph over their oppressor, Babylonian king Nabucco, and convert him to their religion. Verdi was moved by the powerful story, and decided to make it into an opera. Verdi’s audience recognized the opera as a political statement about Italy, which at that time was struggling to throw off foreign rulers and unify as a single country under a single king. Nabucco

became a huge success, and Verdi's name became synonymous with the movement to free and unify Italy.

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Verdi the Musician

Verdi went on to compose some of the world’s most beloved operas, including

Rigoletto, Il Trovatore, Un Ballo in Maschera, Don Carlos, La Traviata, and Aida. These operas are still performed year in and year out at opera houses across the globe.

Verdi the Politician

Verdi played a major role in the Risorgimento (Reunification), the movement to free Italy from foreign rule and unify the Italian Peninsula into a single nation. Themes like abuse of power, political oppression, patriotism, and national unity resonated through many of his operas. Even Verdi’s name became a Risorgimento rallying cry. Nationalists forbidden to voice their support for Victor Emmanuel, who they wanted to crown King of a unified Italy, chanted “Viva VERDI!” Outsiders guessed they were fans of the composer, but the call was an acronym for “Vittorio Emmanuele, Re d’Italia”—Victor Emmanuel, King of Italy.

In 1848, while Verdi was working at the Paris Opera House, revolts broke out across Europe. Hearing that a revolution had started in Milan (an Italian city ruled at that time by the Austro-Hungarian Empire), Verdi promptly returned to Italy. When Italian unification was complete, Verdi became a member of the first Italian national parliament.

No Rest for the Weary

At the age of 58, Verdi retired to his farm-estate Sant'Agata with his second wife, the well-known soprano Giuseppina Strepponi. Over the next several years he wrote his famous Requiem Mass and a string quartet. Much later, at the age of 74, Verdi surprised the opera world with yet another success: Otello. Based on Shakespeare’s play, it was considered by many experts the greatest Italian opera ever written. Six years later, at the age of 80, he produced yet another masterpiece, again from Shakespeare: Falstaff.

A Funeral Fit for a King

In the winter of 1901, at age 88, Verdi suffered a stroke in his hotel suite in Milan. Although he requested a simple funeral, he was given one, in public, the size and kind usually reserved for chiefs of state. At his funeral, thousands of people lined the streets. Singers from La Scala sang the chorus “Va, pensiero” (from Nabucco) in honor of the late composer. Amazingly, the thousands present softly joined in singing the famous chorus.

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BACKGROUND

Verdi, Shakespeare, and

Macbeth

Verdi and Shakespeare

Verdi idolized Shakespeare. He was enthralled by the grand scope of Shakespeare’s stories, their profound psychological insight, their fluid juxtaposition of light and dark, high and low. Throughout his career, he strove to emulate his hero’s epic achievements. He wrote to his music publisher Ricordi: “Shakespeare was a realist, only he did not know it. He was a realist by inspiration; we are realists by design, by calculation.”

Before Verdi, most operas based on Shakespeare changed the Bard’s stories to conform to operatic tastes and conventions. For instance, in one Hamlet

adaptation, Gaetano Andreozzi’s 1792 Amleto, the curtain rises on the King of Denmark’s funeral, where the royal funeral urn spontaneously bursts into flame. Verdi’s approach was radically different. Far from squeezing Shakespeare into an operatic template, he transformed opera to do justice to Shakespeare. In Verdi’s Macbeth, we hear a young composer push the boundaries of Italian opera to begin developing his unique dramatic voice.

Verdi’s Years in the Galleys

Today it may seem as if Verdi emerged from his musical education fully formed and ready to revolutionize the world of opera. However, he spent the years after his first hit Nabucco churning out as many commissions as possible. During his time “in the galleys,” he wrote I Lombardi alla Prima Crociata, Ernani, I due Foscari, Giovanna d’Arca, Alzira, Attila, and more. They weren’t all great operas: he was later heard to remark on Alzira, “That one is really bad.”

The heavy workload often made Verdi physically ill. After the premiere of Attila, his doctor ordered him to rest for six months. Verdi and his friend Andrea Maffei, a poet who translated Schiller and Shakespeare into Italian, worked together at Recoaro. Verdi had a commission for Florence’s Teatro della Pergola on the horizon. Maffei suggested two subjects, Schiller’s Die Räuber (Verdi would later set this as I Masnadieri) and Macbeth. The decision rested on the singers at hand: a great baritone was available to play Macbeth.

The subject gave Verdi a new sense of purpose. “This tragedy is one of the greatest creations of man!,” he wrote to his librettist Piave. “If we can’t do something great with it, let us at least try to do something out of the ordinary…” The composer brought plenty of ideas to the table. He later remembered: “I made the synopsis myself; indeed I did more than the synopsis. I wrote a full prose version of the drama, showing the distribution of the acts, the scenes, the musical numbers and etc…then I gave it to Piave to versify.”

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A New Type of Opera

In many ways, Macbeth is a strange subject for a bel canto opera. It has no central love story, no subplots, and no major role for a tenor. But Verdi was determined to remain faithful to Shakespeare, no matter how many operatic rules he had to break. One famous example is the first-act duettino for Macbeth and Banquo. At this moment, when the witches tell Macbeth he will be King, it would have been traditional to give Macbeth a grand double aria. Instead, Verdi preserved the outline of Shakespeare’s original scene, giving Macbeth and Banquo a series of realistic, broken lines as they react to the witches’ prophecies.

Verdi filled the opera with dark music to evoke the nocturnal world of the play: the howl of the wind, the cry of the owl, and the otherworldly shrieks of witches. Macbeth is not a typical bel canto tragedy, with standard-issue musical “numbers” easy to cut and paste into different contexts. The opera’s dark “tinta” colors everything, making it a more organic and distinctive work. Not Quite Shakespeare

Verdi’s respect for Shakespeare did not keep him from seeing what he wanted to see in Macbeth. Verdi transformed many aspects of the play, including the main character. Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a fundamentally good man. He’s a loyal warrior, beloved by his king and respected by his friends. His internal battle, against the temptations of the witches and his wife, is the heart of the play. Verdi’s Macbeth, in contrast, is happily rotten from the beginning—a bad man with an even worse wife. The lack of inner conflict changes the meaning of the drama. When we watch Shakespeare’s Macbeth, we see a good man becoming a monster. When we watch Verdi’s Macbeth, we witness a monster destroying a country.

What inspired this metamorphosis? The answer may lie in the composer’s politics. Verdi’s Nabucco was propelled to fame by the patriotic chorus “Va, pensiero,” which perfectly captured his audiences’ frustration with the Austrian occupation of their Italian home. Verdi became one of the leading figures of the Risorgimento, the movement to unify Italy and free it from foreign domination. He saw Macbeth as a symbol of his movement’s enemies: oppressive, illegitimate, dangerous, rapacious, immoral, and even satanic. The chorus of the oppressed Scots, “Patria oppressa,” was a patriotic call to arms.

Macbeth Onstage

The 1847 Florence premiere of Macbeth was successful and the opera soon spread through Italy. Verdi dedicated the workto his father-in-law Barezzi, who had supported his musical education and early career: “Here is this Macbeth which I love more than all my other operas, and which I think the most worthy present to you.”

Verdi made a number of revisions for an 1865 production at Paris’ Théâtre Lyrique. Because it was traditional for all operas in Paris to include a ballet, Verdi added a third act ballet for the witches. He also made several changes to the score, adding new arias and duets, a revised chorus for the oppressed Scots, and a new closing scene. But to Verdi’s astonishment, the Paris production was a failure. He wrote to his French publisher Léon Escudier:

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“Taking everything into consideration, Macbeth is a fiasco. Amen. But I confess that I did not expect it. I thought I had done pretty well, but it seems I was wrong.” The opera, however, has stood the test of time; Macbeth is now considered one of Verdi’s most important works.

The Final Masterpieces

Verdi’s love affair with Shakespeare did not end with Macbeth. Throughout his career, his operas grew steadily more Shakespearian. In Un Ballo in Maschera,

Verdi experimented with adding comic relief to a dark tragedy. The epic dramatic sweep of La Forza del Destino recalls Shakespeare’s history plays. But perhaps Shakespeare’s most important influence on Verdi can be found in the three-dimensional characters of works like Rigoletto and Don Carlos.

After Verdi’s official retirement, he decided to write a Shakespearian opera just for himself. The groundbreaking Otello beautifully captured the spirit of Shakespeare’s original. British playwright and critic George Bernard Shaw marveled: “instead of Otello being an Italian opera written in the style of Shakespeare, Othello is a play written by Shakespeare in the style of an Italian opera.”

The success of Otello inspired Verdi to compose Falstaff, his final masterpiece and the ultimate expression of his operatic ideas. Here, Verdi achieved a truly Shakespearian range of effects and emotions. Each dramatic moment is painted with different colors, each thought with a different melody. The orchestra rages, then laughs; voices soar, then giggle. Anger, love, grief, rage, laughter, and serenity take the stage, then vanish. Verdi’s Falstaff celebrates the vast and beautiful variety of life, and tries to embrace it all at once. Once again, Shakespeare had helped Verdi discover new operatic horizons.

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THE MAKING OF

Macbeth

Casting the Composition

Verdi was known for writing vocal parts for certain singers. He would choose which singer he wanted for a specific character, and then assign them to the role. Often, he would change the vocal part so that it would suit the singer’s vocal range. Macbeth was no exception to the rule. A famous baritone, Felice Varesi, played the first Macbeth, with soprano Mariana Barbieri-Nini as the voracious Lady Macbeth. Verdi was adamant that Lady Macbeth should not be sung by a famed soprano of the time, Eugenia Tadolini. He said that Tadolini’s voice was far too perfect and pretty; he wanted Lady Macbeth to sing with a stifled, hallow sound – in order to bring out the dark side of her character.

Varesi: The first Macbeth

Behind the Scenes

Verdi didn’t stop working when his music was written; he also influenced the decisions of the costumes, sets, and acting. He was even particular about the theater that opera would be performed in. He often wrote opinionated letters on the topic:

“…For these operas – good or bad, as you please, but made with other ideas – a superior intelligence is needed to regulate the costumes, the scenery, the properties, the staging, etc., in addition to a musical interpretation beyond the ordinary.” (Verdi in a letter to Cesare de Sanctus)1

Appropriate characterization was especially important to Verdi. He wrote letters to both of his star singers, Varesi and Barbieri Nini, giving them specific instructions for their parts. In a letter to Varesi, he writes:

“I shall never cease recommending you to study closely the dramatic situation and the words: the music comes of itself….Keep in mind the situation, which is when you encounter the witches, who predict the throne for you. You are bewildered and terrified at that announcement, but at the same time there is born in you the ambition of reaching the throne.”2

Such specific instructions from the composer were a new idea to the artists and producers of 19th_{century opera. During his entire career, Verdi strived to}

1

From Verdi’s Ideas on the Production of his Shakespeare Operas by Frank Walker. Proceedings of the Royal Music Association, 76th Session (1949 – 1950)

2

From Verdi’s Ideas on the Production of his Shakespeare Operas by Frank Walker. Proceedings of the Royal Music Association, 76th Session (1949 – 1950)

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bring the ideas of his operas to life; he worked endlessly to assist and guide the production process for his works. He even sent the set designer to a lecture on Scottish and English history.

36…37…38…

The first performance of Macbeth was at the Teatro della Pergola on March 14, 1847. The audience was enamored with the opera; Verdi received 38 curtain calls for the successful work. Almost 20 years after the premier of Macbeth, Verdi was asked to provide additional music for a production at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris. He added a ballet to the opera, and while he was at it, he revised many sections of the original. The first performance of the “Parisian” version of Macbeth was April 21, 1865. The Parisian Macbeth is the version that is most commonly used today.

For information on the current new production of Macbeth, watch an interview with director Adrian Noble at:

http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/season/newseason_video.aspx

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MEET THE CHARACTERS

Lady Macbeth, Soprano: The manipulative wife of Macbeth, she plots

murder with her husband.

Her Lady-in-Waiting, Mezzo-Soprano: One of the many servants to

Lady Macbeth.

Hecate, Dancer:

The head goddess of witchcraft.

Macbeth, Baritone:

The title character, a general. After becoming the Thane of Cawdor, he sets his ambitions high for the throne of Scotland, leading to numerous murders.

Banquo (BAHN-kwo), Bass: A general and friend of Macbeth. He has been

told that his descendents will be kings.

Fleance (Flee-ahnce), Mute:

Banquo’s son.

Macduff, Tenor:

A Scottish nobleman. Macduff recognizes Macbeth and Lady Macbeth as viscous murderers.

Malcolm, Tenor: The son of Duncan. After the murder of his father, he

flees to England.

Physician, Bass: The doctor to the Macbeth family, and a witness to Lady

Macbeth’s demise.

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THE STORY OF

Macbeth

Royalty to be

Scotland. Macbeth and Banquo, leaders of the Scottish army, meet a group of witches who prophesy the future. They address

Macbeth as Thane of Cawdor and King of Scotland and tell Banquo that he will be the father of kings. The two men try to learn more, but the witches vanish. Messengers arrive with news that Duncan, the current King of Scotland, has made Macbeth Thane of Cawdor. The first part of the witches’ prediction has come true.

Act I

Greed, conspiracy, scandal, and death

In Macbeth’s castle, Lady Macbeth reads a letter from her husband telling her of the events that have just transpired. She resolves to follow her ambitions (“Vieni! t’affretta!”). A servant announces that Duncan will soon arrive at the castle, and when Macbeth enters, she tells him that they must kill the king. Duncan arrives, and Lady Macbeth invites him to spend the night. Macbeth has a vision of a dagger, then leaves to commit the murder. On his return, he tells his wife how the act has frightened him (“Fatal mia donna”). She replies that he needs more courage. They both leave as Banquo enters with Macduff, a nobleman, who discovers the murder. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth pretend to be horrified and join the others in condemning the crime.

Hail King Macbeth!

Macbeth has become king. Duncan’s son, Malcolm, is suspected of having killed his father and has fled to England. Worried about

the prophecy that Banquo’s children will rule, Macbeth and his wife now plan to kill him and his son, Fleance, as well. As Macbeth leaves to prepare the double murder, Lady Macbeth hopes that it will finally make the throne secure (“La luce langue”). Outside the castle, assassins wait for Banquo, who appears with his son, warning him of strange forebodings (“Come dal ciel precipita”). Banquo is killed, but Fleance escapes.

Act II

An Apparition Appears

Lady Macbeth welcomes the court to the banquet hall and sings a drinking song (“Si colmi il calice”), while Macbeth hears news that Banquo is dead and his son has escaped. About to take Banquo’s seat, Macbeth has a terrifying vision of the dead man. His wife is unable to calm her husband. The courtiers wonder about the king’s strange behavior. Macduff vows to leave the country, which is now ruled by criminals.

Three Tips of Advice

The witches gather again, and Macbeth enters their cave,

demanding more prophecies. Apparitions warn him to beware of Macduff and assure him that “no man of woman born” can harm him, and that he will be

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invincible until Birnam Wood marches on his castle. In another vision, he sees a procession of future kings, followed by Banquo. Horrified, Macbeth collapses. The witches disappear, leaving him on the heath, where his wife finds him. They resolve to kill Macduff and his family as well as Banquo’s son.

Reclaim the Land!

On the English border, Macduff has joined the Scottish refugees

(Chorus: “Patria oppressa”). His wife and children have been killed (“Ah, la paterna mano”). Malcolm appears with British troops and leads them to invade Scotland. Lady Macbeth is sleepwalking, haunted by the horrors of what she and her husband have done (“Una macchia”).

Act IV

Birnam Wood Comes to Dunsinane

In another room in the castle, Macbeth awaits the arrival of his enemies. He realizes that he will never live to a peaceful old age (“Pietà, rispetto, amore”). Messengers bring news that Lady Macbeth has died, and that Birnam Wood appears to be moving. English soldiers appear, camouflaged with its branches. Macduff confronts Macbeth and tells him that he was not born naturally but had a Caesarean birth. He kills Macbeth and proclaims Malcolm king of Scotland.

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THE MUSIC OF

Macbeth

To Bel Canto, or Not to Bel Canto?

When it comes to the music of Verdi, it might be both! Bel Canto, or “beautiful singing” is an Italian musical term that refers to the style of singing most prominent during the late 16th_{century to the early 19}th_{century. Many of the}

popular composers preceding Verdi, including Donizetti, Bellini, and Rossini, wrote most of their works using this style of singing. Bel Canto singing represents a skilled vocal technique, involving smooth lines, a clear upper-register, vocal agility, and a sweet vocal quality. This technique often allowed singers to flow through difficult passages and fast scales, making them sound easy and light.

Macbeth was written in 1846-1847, which was just after the height of bel canto

singing. While some features of the bel canto style can be heard in the arias of

Macbeth, Verdi made a decisive request: he wanted Lady Macbeth to sound

rough, dark, and powerful – anything but pretty. This certainly did not fit the

bel canto mold, but it did dramatize the character of Lady Macbeth.

Throughout the opera, references to the grotesque character of Lady Macbeth are made through her singing, but some stylistic features of bel canto can also be heard:

• Listen to Lady Macbeth’s aria, La luce langue (CD 1, Track 14). The menacing tone of voice can be heard through the first half of the aria; this is not considered bel canto.

• Towards the end of the aria, beginning with the new verse of O voluttà del soglio! there is a sudden change of style. Lady Macbeth begins singing in typical bel canto fashion as she marvels at her new position on the throne.

“Serve the Poet”

During his lifetime, Verdi was well-known for his involvement in the production of his operas. He held a dominating role in the creation of sets, costumes, and special effects. For the production of Macbeth, his endless precision and attention to details drove the cast and crew to an intense frustration. It is said that for a famous duet in the First Act of Macbeth, Verdi rehearsed the singers over 150 times!

• Listen to the duet between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth (CD 1, Track 8-10). The duet begins with an aria by Macbeth, where he sees a dagger before him, before he commits his first murder. The dark music is reflective of Macbeth’s murderous thoughts.

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• When Lady Macbeth joins Macbeth for the duet (CD 1 Track 9), the music slowly transforms into a fast, nervous melody. Lady Macbeth mocks Macbeth, as he guiltily recounts his action.

• As the music changes again (CD 1 Track 10), the uppity rush of notes brings a certain irony to the scene; Macbeth and his wife are brushing-off their shady deed.

Because of his influence in the new productions of his operas, singers were given specific directions – straight from the composer. For Verdi, it was crucial that the singers emulate the essence of their character. He often told them to “Serve the poet before the composer.” Verdi wanted the singers to pay special attention to the libretto of the opera: by understanding the words and being a convincing character, the music could flow beneath the singer, creating an environment for high drama.

• Listen carefully to Lady Macbeth’s aria, Vieni! t’affreta! (CD 1, Track 5). The strings waltz beneath her melody, and eventually join her, playing the same line as the vocal part.

Musical Characters

In his conviction that the music should serve the words, Verdi carefully orchestrated his opera to do just that. The orchestra part follows the libretto and the singer, often adhering to a theme. The three main characters in

Macbeth are Macbeth, the witches, and Lady Macbeth.

The witches in Macbeth are always introduced with a similar style of musical writing, or thematic material. In the first act, the witches come together to announce the first set of prophesies for Macbeth and Banquo.

• Listening to the music of the witches (CD 1, Track 1), it sounds heavy, dark, and extremely loud. Verdi uses brass instruments and percussion to make strong statements, creating an atmosphere for their entrance.

• When the witches sing, the music is short, staccato, and dry; the violins play quick trills and runs, adding to the sinister setting.

• Each time the witches return to the scene, it is with the same music (CD 1, Track 4).

• The witches are introduced a final time, in Act Three (CD 2, Track 1). The musical theme of the witches is used here as well; intense dynamics create lightning and thunder, as the witches sing along to a melody of short and crisp words.

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THE

PRODUCTION

PROCESS

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As guests in the Metropolitan Opera house, we are lucky enough to watch as the art of hundreds of singers, musicians, dancers, actors, designers and stagehands comes to life onstage. During your trip it is important to understand and respect all the immensely hard work that goes into the production you are watching.

What? No microphones?!

The Met auditorium is 72 ft tall, 100 ft wide and 230 ft wide. The auditorium alone is like a seven-story building that covers one quarter of a city block. Opera singers make themselves heard through the whole house, over a full orchestra – without amplification. There are no microphones hidden in the set! Instead, opera singers use their training and the acoustics of the building to project their voices. In order to do this, opera singers train for longer than doctors. This is partly because they are trying to isolate and train their vocal cords: a mechanism about the size of your little finger nail. This is made doubly hard by the fact that unlike other musicians, singers can’t see their instrument, so all of their learning has to be by sensation.

Amazing feats of memory

Opera singers have to memorize several hours of music for each opera. Operas are usually performed in the language in which they were written, which

means that opera singers must perform in – and understand – Italian, German, French, Russian; even Czech!

Phew!

Opera singers do all of these things while they are onstage under hot lights, performing blocking that can be awkward or difficult. Opera singers have to be able to sing lying down, running, jumping, dancing and performing all kinds of other tricky moves. Period costumes like hoop skirts, cloaks and corsets can also be hot and uncomfortable.

WHAT TO WATCH…

On Stage

Opera singers

Who sings what?

Here is a very rough guide to the different voice types, starting with the highest (soprano), going right down to the very deepest (bass):

Soprano: Sopranos have the highest voices. They usually play the heroines of an opera. This means they have lots of show-off arias to sing, and get to fall in love and / or die more often than other female voice types.

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Mezzo soprano, or mezzo: This is the middle female voice, and has a darker, warmer sound than the soprano. Mezzos spend a lot of their time playing mothers and villainesses, although sometimes they get to play seductive heroines. Mezzos also play young men on occasion – these are called trouser roles, for obvious reasons.

Contralto, or alto: The lowest female voice. Contralto is a rare voice type. Altos usually portray older females or character parts like witches and old gypsies.

Counter tenor: Also known as alto, this is the highest male voice, and another vocal rarity. Counter tenors sing with about the same range as a contralto. Counter tenor roles are most common in baroque opera, but some more modern composers write parts for counter tenors too.

Tenor: If there are no counter tenors on stage, then the highest male voice in opera is tenor. Tenors are usually the heros who get the girl or die horribly in the attempt.

Baritone: The middle male voice. In comic opera, the baritone is often the ringleader of whatever naughtiness is going on, but in tragic opera, he’s more likely to play the villain.

Bass: The lowest male voice. Low voices usually suggest age and wisdom in serious opera, and basses usually play Kings, fathers, and grandfathers. In comic opera basses often portray old characters that are foolish or laughable.

The conductor

The conductor is in charge of keeping the orchestra and all the singers together. He or she decides on the speed (tempo) for the music and decides which parts of the music to emphasize and bring out. It’s also the conductor’s job to achieve the right balance of sound, making sure that the singer can be heard above the orchestra. The conductor keeps time throughout the opera and has the last word on all questions of musical interpretation.

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The orchestra plays the music of the opera in the pit. As a general rule of thumb, orchestras are divided into the following sections:

Strings: including violins, violas, cellos, double bass Woodwind: including oboe, clarinet, flute and bassoon Brass: including trumpets, trombones, tuba, French horns

Percussion: including bass drum, kettle drum, timpani, and xylophone

Often opera orchestras include special effects specific to the opera being performed. Sometimes you can see unusual instruments in the pit. Some that have been used at the Met in recent years are airplane propellers, type writers, and guillotines!

Most operas have a chorus. The chorus at the Met have to learn large chunks of music for each opera, and sometimes perform in several different operas a week! In each opera, chorus members have to remember just as much as the soloists – it’s just that they sing together rather than on their own.

The orchestra

The chorus

The audience

Last, but my no means least, are the audience. Hundreds of artists work every day just to produce spectacular, beautiful, exciting opera for their audiences. You can show that you appreciate their hard work (whether you like the opera or not!) with your applause – and with your politeness during the performance. Being quiet during the opera is not only polite to the performers – it’s a gift to your fellow audience members, and it means you won’t miss any of the action. Hurray! Bravo!

Opera is all about extremes and this extends to the audience too. Although you should be as quiet as a mouse during all the action, there are points at which you can clap and yell ‘bravo’ at the top of your voice. Here are some guidelines:

• Definitely clap when the conductor comes out to his podium (but not while the orchestra is tuning up!)

• Clap when the curtain comes down and when performers take a bow

• You can also applaud if the conductor stops the orchestra for applause after an aria – but it’s always rude to applaud over the orchestra!

• If you really love a particular singer’s performance, by all means yell at them. You yell ’bravo’ to a man, or ‘brava’ to a woman. This lets singers know that you especially loved their performance.

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Absolutely NO whispering during the performance!

There is no whispering or talking allowed inside the opera house. This means not to discuss the opera, not when the orchestra gets loud; not even to ask to borrow binoculars.

Part of the reason that we, the audience, can hear opera singers so clearly without microphones is that the Met Opera House has incredible acoustics. This means that when sound comes from the stage, it bounces around the house and reaches your ears without getting lost in dead space. In other words, the house itself is a huge echoing tunnel that amplifies sound. In the same way as you can hear everything that the orchestra and singers perform, they can hear every whisper, candy wrapper, and cough in the audience very, very clearly. It is a fact that if you stand on stage at the Met, you can hear anyone at the back of the audience whisper!

Acoustics at the Met: Did you know...

• There are no hard corners in the Met opera house. Hard corners eat up sound, whereas the curved surfaces at the Met reflect sound back to the audience, so that none is lost in transit.

• Even the chandeliers at the Met are designed to bounce sound back towards the audience!

• All of the wood veneer in the Met auditorium comes from a single African rosewood tree. This means that all of the wood resonates at exactly the same frequency, amplifying sound. It’s as if the auditorium itself is a huge musical instrument!

Quick checklist for enjoying opera

Before the show:

• Read the story

• Work out how long the opera is

• Turn your cell phone off – along with anything else that might beep

• Have some food During the show:

• No snacks, food, gum, or drinks allowed inside the auditorium

• No eating, chewing gum or drinking during the performance

• No cell phones, beeping watches, radios, cassette recorders or cameras

• No feet on seats of railings

• No clapping out of turn At the end of the show:

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Maria Guleghina (soprano): Lady Macbeth

WHO TO WATCH…

Biographies of the Cast and Crew

Maria Guleghina began her professional career at the State Opera in Minsk, and a year later made her debut in La Scala as Amelia in Un Ballo in Maschera under Maestro Gavazzeni opposite Luciano Pavarotti. Her voice of great power and warmth, and her immense acting ability made her a permanent and welcome guest everywhere. She is particularly noted for her interpretation of the title role in Tosca. Her repertoire also includes the title role in Aida, Manon Lescaut, Norma, Fedora, as well as Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, Abigaille in Nabucco, Leonora in Il Trovatore, Oberto and La Forza del Destino, Elvira in Ernani, Elisabetta in Don Carlo, Amelia in

Simon Boccanegra, and Un Ballo in Maschera, Lucrezia in I due Foscari, Desdemona in Otello, Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana, Maddalena in Andrea Chenier, Lisa in Pique Dame and Odabella in Attila.

Maria Guleghina has performed many solo recitals including appearances at La Scala, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Lille, Sao Paolo, Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Suntory Hall, Osaka, Kyoto, Hong Kong, Rome and Moscow to name a few! Many of the productions in which she has appeared have been broadcast on the radio as well as televised, and she has performed with many of the world’s leading singers and conductors, in venues all around the globe. Maria has been the recipient of many prizes for her contribution to opera performance, and was recently appointed onto the Honorary Board of the International Paralympics Committee.

Dimitri Pittas (tenor): Macduff

Tenor Dmitri Pittas has performed many roles at opera theaters around the world. He has previously performed at Opéra de Bordeaux, Opera Leipzig, l’Opéra de Montréal and The Metropolitan Opera. At The Met Opera, Pittas has performed in

Don Carlo, Lucia di Lamermoor, Romeo et Juliette, Fidelio, and Parsifal.

Having recently completed his studies at The Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, Pittas has earned many awards, including a George Landon award and the prestigious Vienna Prize. In 2004, Pittas took first price in the Licia Albanese/Puccini Foundation Competition and also earned first prize in the 2006 Elardo Competition. Most recently, he received a Richard Tucker Career Grant in 2006.

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Željko Lu

č

i

ć

(baritone): Macbeth

Baritone Željko Lučić was born in Yugoslavia and made his operatic debut in 1993 as Silvio in I Pagliacci in Novi Sad. Since then, he has enjoyed international success at opera houses throughout the world. Lučić made his debut at The Met as Barnaba in La Gioconda this past year.

During the 2006-07 opera season, Lučić performed with the Dallas Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper, and the Vienna Staatsoper. He also appeared with many

orchestras, including the Hessicher Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra, Belgrade Filharmony, and RTB Symphony Orchestra. Having studied with famed mezzo Biserka Cvejic, Lučić has won many awards, including first prize at the 1997 International Competition Fransisco Viñas in Barcelona.

He has also been a member of Oper Frankfurt’s ensemble since 1998, where he has performed roles in Faust, La Traviata, Volo di notte, Falstaff, Macbeth, Les Huguenots, among many others. This past season, Lučić performed in La

viata, Pique Dame, Simon Boccanegra, and Un ballo in Maschera.

Tra

John Relyea (bass-baritone): Banquo

Bass-baritone John Relyea has achieved international fame as an opera singer. He has appeared in the world’s finest opera houses including San Fransisco, Santa Fe Opera, Seattle Opera, Royal Opera House, Paris Opera, Munich State Opera, and the Vienna State Opera.

This past season, Relyea made his debut at the Vienna State Opera as Escamillo in Carmen. He also returned

to New York to sing at The Met in Rodelinda and Lucia di Lammermoor. He also performed as Banquo in Macbeth in Covent Garden.

Active as a recitalist, Relyea has presented performances in New York at Weill Hall and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He has also performed at Wigmore Hall in London, the University Musical Society in Ann Arbor, and the University of Chicago Presents series. In collaboration with opera theaters and professional orchestras, Relyea has recorded with Emi and Deutche Grammaphon. As an alumnus of the Merola Opera Program and a former Adler Program at the San Fransisco Opera, Relyea received a Richard Tucker award in 2003.

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James Levine,

Conductor

Since his 1971 company debut leading Tosca, Maestro Levine has conducted over 2,000 operatic performances at the Met—more than any other conductor in the company’s history. Of the 81 operas he has led here, 14 were

company premieres (including Moses und Aron, La

Cenerentola, Bluebeard’s Castle, Porgy and Bess, Oedipus

Rex and Lulu). He also led the world premieres of

Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles and Harbison’s The Great Gatsby. This season, Maestro Levine will conduct 43 performances at the Met, including the opening-night premiere of Madama Butterfly, new productions of Il

Trittico and Orfeo, the new abridged English-language

version of The Magic Flute, and revivals of Idomeneo, Don Carlo, Die Zauberflöte and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. He also appears at Carnegie Hall with the MET Orchestra and Boston Symphony Orchestra, and at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall with the MET Chamber Ensemble. Maestro Levine returns to the Boston Symphony Orchestra for his third season as music director, and following Tanglewood and Verbier Festival residencies next July and August, takes the BSO on tour to Europe for the first time for two weeks of concerts at the summer festivals.

Adrian Noble,

Director

Adrian Noble has worked extensively in theater in England and across the globe, most prestigiously as Artistic Director and Chief Executive at the Royal Shakespeare Company. He was born and educated in England, attending college at the University of Bristol. Although his production of Macbeth is new to the Met, Noble is very experienced in directing the plays of Shakespeare, including directing the theatrical version of

Macbeth in 1988 and 1993. Many of his other

productions include: The Recruiting Officer, Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, Scotland. The Forest, Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), The Duchess of Malfi, A

Doll's House, Antony and Cleopatra, King Lear, Measure for Measure, The Comedy of Errors, A New Way to Pay Old Debts, Henry V, The Desert Air, and

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Mark Thompson,

Set & Costume Designer

Mark Thompson is well established in the realms of theater and opera. His theater designs have been seen at the Queen’s Theatre (London), Royal National Theatre (London), Haymarket Theatre (London), Vivian Beaumont Theatre (New York), and the Mark Taper Forum (Los Angeles).

In opera, Thompson’s designs include Ariadne auf Naxos, Falstaff, Hansel and Gretel, Montag aus Licht, Peter Grimes,

Queen of Spades, and The Two Widows. These operas have

been produced internationally at Scottish Opera, La Scala, Opera North, The Metropolitan Opera, English National Opera, and the Royal Opera House.

Thompson has been awarded several Laurence Olivier Theatre Awards, two London Critics Circle Theatre Awards, and has twice been nominated for Broadway’s Tony Award.

Jean Kalman,

Lighting Designer

French designer Jean Kalman has been working in the field since 1979. He has designed for theater and opera in France, Great Britain, Germany, Holland, Italy, Japan, and the United States.

In theater, Kalman’s work has appeared in shows such as Peter Brook’s The Cherry Orchard and The Tempest; Pierre Audi’s Tourist Guide, and Undivine Comedy; Richard Eyre’s Richard III, and White Chameloen, and numerous other productions.

Kalman has illuminated operatic performances of Turandot, La Bohème, Madame Butterfly, Nabucco, Eugene Onegin, Salome, Der Rosenkavalier, Orfeo ed Euridice, L’Incoronazione di Poppea,and Regina, to name a few. Works for the operatic stage have taken Kalman to Covent Garden, Opera North,

Glyndebourne, Paris, Saito Kinen Festival, the Aix-en-Provence Festival, Amsterdam Opera, Lyon Opera, and the Scottish Opera.

Kalman won Olivier awards for Best Lighting for Richard III and White Chameleon (both at the National Theatre) and the 2004 Evening Standard Award for Best Lighting for Festen (West End).

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WHEN TO WATCH…

An Average Production Timeline

5-10 years in advance General manager chooses operas for the season; designers, singers and conductors are scheduled for each production.

3-5 years in

Met School Membership Program. Macbeth. Teacher Study Guide