Macbeth : Cavani, Bartoletti / Teatro Regio di Parma, Nucci, Valayre, Iuliano, Tramonti, etc (2006 Stereo)

Giuseppe Verdi: Macbeth
Teatro Regio, Parma, 2006

Macbeth - Leo Nucci
Banco - Enrico Iori
Lady Macbeth - Sylvie Valayre
La sua dama - Tiziana Tramonti
Macduff - Roberto Iuliano
Malcom - Nicola Pascoli
Il medico - Enrico Turco
L'araldo - Davide Ronzoni
Un domestico - Riccardo Di Stefano
Il sicario - Noris Borgogelli

Coro e Orchestra del Teatro Regio, Parma
Bruno Bartoletti, conductor

Stage Director: Liliana Cavani

NTSC
Sound Formats: PCM-STEREO, DD 5.1
Picture Format: 16:9
Subtitles: GB, D, F, I, E
Region Code: 0
Running Time: 156min

Macbeth occupies a special place in Verdi’s overall output: it is his only opera without an amorous intrigue, and it is also his first Shakespearean opera. Shakespeare was one of his “favourite poets,” the composer admitted, “a poet whose works I have had in my hands from my earliest youth and one whom I read and reread constantly.”

TDK presents a recent staging of the four-act dramatic opera that tells the story of the Scottish nobleman Macbeth, who is corrupted by power and loses his wife, his sanity and finally his life to his ambitions. The plot, set in Scotland in the middle of the 11th century, represents Verdi’s advance into realism. He developed a completely new approach to characterization, in which characters and actions are treated with a hitherto unprecedented degree of realism and began to explore his own scenario for the first time.

Thus a staging as close to the plot and its psychological context becomes inevitable. Internationally renowned film director Liliana Cavani (best known for the 1974 film Night Porter with Charlotte Rampling) takes the conflict of a man torn between two female force fields at face value and shows Lady Macbeth’s lascivious insinuations and the seductive prophecies of the witches as elements of the pitfalls that both real and our subconscious urges provide.

Just as Lady Macbeth is a dramaturgically important role, pushing the action forward, so Macbeth becomes the main character in the opera on a more psychological level. Both parts demand highly talented actors who are also paramount singers.
Macbeth is one of the most multi-layered, profound and demanding roles that Verdi ever wrote for a baritone and the Italian singer Leo Nucci is arguably the most distinguished in his field. The role has repeatedly brought him lasting success and he enacts it with an intensity that only the very experienced stage personality can muster.
French singer Sylvie Valayre is known for her versatile interpretations of spinto and dramatic coloratura soprano parts, especially for particularly gruelling roles like Lady Macbeth.
Supported by Italian bass Enrico Iori as Banco and tenor Roberto Iuliano as Macduff, they make up a wonderful cast under the baton of Bruno Bartoletti, musical director of the Teatro Regio di Parma.
( TDK )