Met School Membership Program. Macbeth. Teacher Study Guide

Transcription

1 Met School Membership Program Macbeth Teacher Study Guide Metropolitan Opera Guild Education Department 70 Lincoln Center Plaza New York, NY

2 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: Macbeth: Macduff: Banquo: Conductor: Production: Set Designer: Costume Designer: Lighting Designer: Choreographer: Maria Guleghina Željko Luĉić Dimitri Pittas John Relyea James Levine Adrian Noble Mark Thompson Mark Thompson Jean Kalman 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. 2

3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Production Information 2 What is Opera, Anyway? 4-15 A Not-so-brief History of Opera Music and Production 4-10 Who Does What at The Met: The Basics of Opera Production The Composer: Giuseppe Verdi Background Verdi, Shakespeare and Macbeth The Making of Macbeth Meet the Characters 23 The Story of Macbeth The Music of Macbeth The Production Process at The Metropolitan Opera What to Watch Who to Watch When to Watch 37 Activities To Introduce Students to Opera To Introduce Students to Macbeth To Introduce Students to the Production Process Research Ideas 53 Resources Using Macbeth to Teach Humanities by Zeke Hecker Using Macbeth to Teach Music by Jonathan Dzik OPERA NEWS Article: Open Letters by Mary Jane Phillips-Matz, March 5, 1994 Metropolitan Opera Facts Glossary and Definitions

4 WHAT IS OPERA ANYWAY? 4

5 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 Front Page of Le Nuove Musiche, the first book to introduce monody 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 of ethos 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. 5

6 The late Baroque gets serious 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 A Baroque opera house in Switzerland audiences, who took the moral lessons in opera very seriously. In Italian opera 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. It s a hit! 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 reused 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. An example of Baroque costume 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. A portrait of Christoph Gluck Pretension Police! Classical composers develop opera for the people By the end of the 18 th century, things weren t looking good for European aristocrats. Revolutionary rumblings were spreading through the French middle class, and 6

7 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. Out with the old, in with the new The same reforms which brought opera seria down to size influenced 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. Bel Canto sets off vocal fireworks Even though the composition of opera seria waned after 1800, composers in 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 opera may seem as if it took forever to write, but many bel 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. Viva VERDI! Composer Giuseppe Verdi wrote highly inventive, impressively tuneful, and intensely dramatic operas which are some of the most frequently performed 7

8 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 19 th 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: On stage? Verdi often wrote in a style called grand opera, a term which has as much to do with how opera looks as how it sounds. Grand opera came from France, where opera productions were the Hollywood blockbusters of their day. Operagoers 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 A production of Aida 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 Richard Wagner changed everything. Though he was Verdi s exact contemporary during the late Romantic period both composing from about 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? Wagner isn t just famous for his epic operas; he introduced a theory called gesamtkunstwerk, or 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 8 The orchestra plays in a covered pit at the Festpeilhaus

9 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. Torchbearers: Strauss & Puccini The works of Wagner and Verdi are sometimes celebrated as the most supreme accomplishments of composition possible in opera how could anyone attempt to write opera after such titans? Yet two bold, inspired composers of the late 19 th 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. Verismo! In the 1890s, an operatic style called verismo arose from a growing trend 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. Thinking outside the box In the early twentieth century, opera s production was the subject of visual 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. 9

10 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 muchanticipated 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! 10

11 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. 11

12 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! 12

13 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. 13

14 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. 14

15 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! 15

16 THE COMPOSER Giuseppe Verdi The People s Composer Verdi was born in 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. 16

17 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. 17

18 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. 18

19 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 work to 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: 19

20 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. 20

21 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 19 th 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, 76 th Session ( ) 2 From Verdi s Ideas on the Production of his Shakespeare Operas by Frank Walker. Proceedings of the Royal Music Association, 76 th Session ( ) 21

22 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 The first performance of Macbeth was at the Teatro della Pergola on March 14, 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, 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: The Teatro della Pergola. The first performance of Macbeth was staged here. 22

23 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. Duncan, Mute: The King of Scotland. 23

24 THE STORY OF Macbeth Royalty to be Scotland. Macbeth and Banquo, leaders of the Scottish army, Act I 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. 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 Act II 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. 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, Act III 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 24

25 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! Act IV 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 ). 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. 25

26 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 16 th 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 upperregister, 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 , 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. 26

27 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. 27