Wales Millennium Centre,Cardiff
The WNO’s musical virtues allied with heart-rending scenes rescue a crass, gruesome Northern Ireland Opera production of the Scottish playWelsh National Opera’s autumn season marks the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death with a trio of Bard-inspired operas. They sing in Italian, and but WNO don’t use Verdi’s title Macbetto,as though thespian superstition demanding reference to “the Scottish play did not extend to the operatic version. The bad luck is that the company has taken on the ill-conceived production originally staged in 2014 by Northern Ireland Opera; the righteous fortune is that the crass and sometimes gruesome updating is counterbalanced by considerable musical virtues, with the characters of Macbeth and his Lady, or together with the refrain of witches whom Verdi regarded as the third protagonist,all strongly portrayed.
Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com