MACBETH al Vienna State Opera - Review

Macbeth at the Vienna State Opera – Review by Natalia Dantas – Placido Domingo in the title role in a questionable edition.

“ POLONIUS: What are you reading, monsignor?

[…]

HAMLET Slanders, sir. This satirical scoundrel maintains that old men have gray beards, wrinkled faces, eyes that purge thick amber and plum gum, and a great deficiency of sense together with very weak buttocks - all things, sir, which I also believe very strongly and profoundly [...] ]. In fact, you too, my lord, will grow old like me – if you could recoil like crabs.”

This Shakespearean theatrical dialogue came to the writer's mind on November 1, 2019, in an illustrious theatre, that of the Wiener Staatsoper, during the performance of Verdi's Macbeth. Skakespeare calls Shakespeare…

The consideration that Hamlet makes to Polonius adapts perfectly to the conditions of each of us, no one excluded and excepted: old age is an ugly beast and cannot be recoiled like crabs to get younger. Life is also about accepting old age. But perhaps, indeed, certainly, when it comes to the old age of a grown-up, then it becomes even more difficult to accept the gray beard, the wrinkled face and all the rest. But the time has come for everyone to take note of their condition.

We wanted to use this dialogue of the highest dramaturgy for a character of the highest theatrical caliber: Placido Domingo. No less so, for the great Placido. But it's time for him to give up his singing weapons too, after a very long, dazzling, unattainable career.

Seeing him still on the stage, hunched over, looking exhausted, the emotion that takes your breath away at the beginning, the constant danger of not remembering the words, was not a good show. We imagine him: he was there with the strength of his character and his authority, beyond any news event of the last few months, beyond everything, still loved, idolized by the delirious crowd even today, who at the end of the show gave him over a quarter of an hour of applause.

But this does not justify a weakened and tired musical performance; the lack of breath that prevented him from finishing the musical phrases, the back bent over the years, the legs no longer as strong as they once were, the spasmodic dependence on the master remembrancer's pit.

It was Macbeth, moreover: a Macbeth which the great tenor, now a baritone, proved to be scenically and vocally inappropriate. Catapulted, among other things, into a bizarre production by Christian Räth, which is the one currently in use in Vienna for Verdi's masterpiece, seen and reviewed, as well as reviewed with other singers.

Räth's direction, together with Gary McCann's staging, inevitably recalled a cinematic Richard III directed by Jan Loncraine, 1996, a very high quality film, but perhaps the director had read the Shakespearean tragedy more carefully than Piave's libretto, since he captured quite suggestive moments, but he also made reckless blunders. Unfortunately, certain cartoonish naiveties, such as that of the dagger in the transparent plastic bag presented to the bystanders as the royal murder weapon, cannot be overlooked.

An absolutely non-traditional setting and direction, therefore, which even further accentuated the inadequacy to which the great artist is now forced to succumb. But no one, it is believed, forces him to continue singing. He leads well, the podium is his…The direction could also be his; a thousand opportunities that already exist or that could be created would ensure that he is removed from the stage without removing him from the theater.

We hope that his gray age will continue for many long years, in serenity and in music. However, it still doesn't make us sad to see him struggling to live up to the challenge of a protagonist who is both vocally and scenically difficult, at the mercy of today's directorial follies.

This speech does not only apply to him, but to all the greats who, like him, at a certain point reach the age Hamlet spoke of.

If you then place next to him a soprano who is now also a weakened vocalist, like Tatiana Serjan, despite her still relatively young age, you are certainly not doing him any favors. In turn, with Domingo in those conditions, his task really became almost impossible.

Serjan, heard and reviewed again in Vienna and always in the same place four years ago, has lost the wide vibrato that distinguished her then (which is not a bad thing) but above all she has completely lost her ring. The part is therefore too difficult for an interpreter who, moreover, does not possess the necessary versatility, despite the beautiful dramatic color of the middle zone. Therefore, she cannot support a part like that of the Lady, which requires the bass, the strings, but also the aforementioned ringing and the power, the ability to dominate the entire stage of colleagues and choir.

Instead, both Domingo and she, when they could be covered by the choir and the orchestra, practically remained silent. A sort of "hide and seek" that may escape a not particularly trained ear, but which does not escape the connoisseur.

Maestro Pierpaolo Bisanti, leading the Wieners, as a great singer pleasantly said about conductors with "robust" batons, "has a bit’ of concrete in the arm”. So for him conducting the stupendous Viennese orchestra was like having not one, but two Ferraris to drive at the same time, making them roar with extreme gusto. The orchestra, therefore, was decidedly strong and probably even more so towards the final part of the opera, because the potential of the singers on stage was weakening…

We know very well that Maestro Bisanti knows how to balance the dynamics and express the subtleties. Among other things, Verdi's tempos were perfect. BUT…the sound was thrown as hard as I could to sometimes even cover the flaws of a choir that was also disbanded. We are also strange about this: the Wiener Staatsoper choir has always been like clockwork in this production. So what happened to everyone on this unhappy evening?

At this point, those who did not yet need to recoil like crabs, because at the height of their strength and vocal faculties, stood out as if they were pearls, even if they were not pearls. Ryan Speedo Green, the best on stage, in truth, was not a pearl (black in his case) like Banquo. And the oriental tenor Jinxu Xiahou, Macduff, was no pearl either. But their voices were intact and that made them stand out anyway.

All this to say that everything has its time and that there is a time for everything. But then again, we reporters (it is more correct not to use the word "critics") are here not to judge, but to take note and pass on what happens in the theater. And what happens in the theater, when mythical figures like Placido Domingo are involved, is no longer news, but history.

History should not be forgotten, but remembered: it is neither good nor bad, it is just itself: HISTORY.

Natalia Dantas