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Not Bad Macbeth–Sterling Nucci

Robert Levine

Artistic Quality:

Sound Quality:

This not-quite-persuasive performance from Parma has many vocal felicities to recommend it. Its major problems are with the staging. Director Liliana Cavani has plenty of ideas, but none of them are thought through. She uses a stage-within-a-stage, with onlookers—a few of whom are mannequins—dressed in mid-19th century clothing. Some are chorus members but others almost never react, and the cast does not interact with them. Why are they there? Lady Macbeth’s entourage includes a dwarf (only in Act 1), whom she treats badly.

The witches are doing laundry in the first scene; in the third act there’s still laundry-leftovers, but the witches are wearing beards. The principal players are in 17th-century (Shakespearean?) clothing. And, oh yes, an air-raid siren goes off right before the overture, followed by gunshots. As I said—ideas galore, but nothing either developed or, for that matter, related. Unless, of course, Cavani intends the entire opera to be an hallucination.

Add to this the very conventional acting of the cast and you get a strange mixture of old fashioned and close-to-Régie, with not enough visual interest to seduce the audience on any level. Luckily, the singing is impressive: Leo Nucci is still a Macbeth to reckon with (he was 65 at the time of this performance), probing the character from the inside, not afraid to look weak or crazed, shading his tone to suit the moment, and offering a performance truly based in bel canto. He’s not physically an inventive actor (as is, say, Simon Keenlyside in a DVD from Covent Garden), but he convinces thoroughly, in an old fashioned way.

Sylvia Valayre’ s Lady looks and “feels” right; she’s flirtatious with all the men at the supper and pays great attention to her husband’s needs, alternately coddling him and egging him on. The voice is the right size for the role—i.e., gigantic—and she has all the notes; but it’s not always a joy to listen to. It turns coarse at times and the bottom is weak. Her Sleepwalking Scene is impressive if conventional, with nightgown and candle. What happened to her dwarf? Tenor Roberto Iuliano’s Macduff is well sung and played; his aria exhibits a fine legato. Enrico Iori is a good enough Banquo—we don’t miss him once he’s murdered.

Conductor Bruno Bartoletti keeps the tension high and the action tight; the Parmeggiani play and sing well for him. The audience loves it, especially Nucci. And so, not a bad performance at all, but why own it when you can have a younger Nucci in a film under Riccardo Chailly with Shirley Verrett as an amazing Lady (DG), or Simon Keenlyside and Liudmyla Monastyrska on Opus Arte? Good picture and sonics; subtitles are in all major European languages plus Chinese, Korean, and Japanese.


Recording Details:

Reference Recording: Nucci, Verrett (DG); Keenlyside; Covent Garden (Opus Arte)

  • Record Label: Unitel - 722008
  • Medium: DVD

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