Supporting cast dominates Verdi’s ‘Macbeth’ at Met
By MIKE SILVERMAN
NEW YORK (AP) – Lay on Macduff – and Banquo, too.
10 May 08
It was these two supporting characters who stood out Friday night as
the Metropolitan Opera assembled an entirely new cast for the season’s
last three performances of Verdi’s "Macbeth."
As Banquo, Macbeth’s comrade in arms who falls early victim to his
murderous rampage, the German bass Rene Pape dominated the early
scenes. His beautiful tone, seamless throughout his range but
especially impressive in its upper reaches, always commands attention,
as does his deep commitment to character. From his first entrance, he
makes Banquo’s wariness of the witches’ prophesies – and of Macbeth –
apparent, and his one aria, "Come dal ciel precipita" grimly
foreshadows his murder at the hand of Macbeth’s hired thugs.
In the second half of the evening, the nobleman Macduff, who until this
point has mostly been an observer, mourns the slaying of his wife and
children in a lyrical aria, "Ah, la paterna mano." This solo provided a
golden opportunity for Joseph Calleja, a young tenor from Malta, to
impress the audience with his large, warm and well-focused voice.
Calleja, whose previous Met appearances have been as the Duke in
Verdi’s "Rigoletto," drew the evening’s biggest applause and made one
eager to hear him in more roles.
The leading roles of Macbeth and his Lady, meanwhile, were in the hands
of singers who discharged their duties honorably without making a
particularly vivid impression.
Hasmik Papian, an Armenian soprano, has potent high notes in her favor
(though her final D flat in the sleep-walking scene sounded forced) and
the technique to toss off her drinking song with elan. But she is weak
in the lower, chest register where so much of Lady Macbeth’s early
music lies.
As her husband, Spanish baritone Carlos Alvarez is something of a
puzzle. His basic sound is attractive, if a size too small for an ideal
Verdi singer. But he never quite grabs hold of the role or the audience.
With such an imbalance in the casting, the focus of much of the evening
fell on the superb work by the chorus, the grimly effective – and
sometimes darkly amusing – production by Adrian Noble and the
sympathetic conducting of James Levine in the pit.
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