Sir David McVicar’s production of Verdi’s Macbeth, first seen in Chicago in fall 2021, opened last night at the Four Seasons Centre in Toronto. Expectations were high after the huge success of McVicar’s Rusalka in 2019 and, in many ways, this was the COC’s most ambitious show since the pandemic, and that despite Sondra Radvanovsky dropping out.
By and large it lived up to the hype and got a rapturous reception from the opening night crowd. While there was much to like, three things stood out in particular. McVicar seems to have a very sure sense of what Macbeth is about. It was creepy and grim and violent. The monumental sets were based on a sort of ruined chapel which transformed (not without some awkwardly long scene changes) into Macbeth’s hall, the witches’ lair and so on without ever quite losing it’s ecclesiastical austerity. The mid-19th-century setting worked well with Lady Macbeth oddly reminiscent of a mourning Queen Victoria and clever detailing of costumes including a subtle contrast between the “continental” uniforms of the Scots soldiers and Malcolm’s very English troops. There were also three children interpolated into all the infernal scenes. They earned their stage call of “the three creepy little dudes”, perhaps most notably when sat front and centre violently stabbing a doll during the cauldron scene. Add in spectacular “storm” lighting and some interesting visuals for the Apparitions and the feel was most definitely Gothic.
Then there was Quinn Kelsey making his role debut as the title character. This was no diffident Macbeth. He oozed power in a malevolent way and sang magnificently, but also with subtlety, varying his colours from really quite beautiful to not so much. His stage presence too was commanding. The third ingredient in the cocktail was some really excellent conducting from Speranza Scappucci. There were grand moments of course but what really stood out was the way she held a sense of tension almost entirely unrelieved throughout. Tempi played a part but I think it was mostly control of dynamics that did the trick. The orchestra often sounded very quietly menacing and that also helped the singers who had few places where they had to struggle to be heard.
There was much more to like. Önay Köse’s Banquo was absolutely solid and his stage presence a match for Kelsey. Matt Cairns as Macduff was excellent throughout but it was his “Ah, la paterna mano”, sung with ringing high notes and real pathos, that brought perhaps the biggest ovation of the evening. Alexandrina Pendatchanska’s Lady Macbeth took a little while to really get going (opening night nerves?) but she settled into the role which, to be fair, doesn’t sit particularly well for her voice, and the Sleepwalking Scene was very fine. Here she got excellent support from Tracy Cantin (Lady in Waiting) and Vartan Gabrielian (Doctor). All the other minor roles came off effectively.
The chorus has a huge role to play in this opera and the COC Chorus was on top form. The singing was top notch and there was some committed acting, especially from the ladies in the witch scenes. The orchestra too was in excellent shape. There was power and subtlety in the playing and a sense again that everyone was fully buying into Scappucci’s interpretation of the score.
A few glitches aside this was most definitely the strongest production since lockdown and the most impressive under new GD Perryn Leech. Let’s hope it’s a sign of things to come.
