Giuseppe VERDI (1813-1901)
Macbeth (1847, revised 1865)
World première of the original 1865 French version
Ludovic Tézier (baritone) - Macbeth; Silvia Dalla Benetta (soprano) - Lady Macbeth; Riccardo Zanellato (bass) - Banquo; Giorgio Berrugi (tenor) - Macduff; David Astorga (tenor) - Malcolm; Francesco Leone (bass) - Un médecin; Natalia Gavrilan (mezzo-soprano) -La Comtesse; Jacobo Ochoa (bass) - Un serviteur / Un sicaire / Premier fantôme; Pietro Bolognini (treble) - Second fantôme; Pilar Mezzadri Corona (treble) - Troisième fantôme; Cassandre Berthon (speaker)
Chorus of the Teatro Regio of Parma
Filarmonia Arturo Toscanini/Roberto Abbado
rec. live, 11-13 September 2020, Parco Ducale di Parma, Festival Verdi, Italy
Libretto and notes in Italian with English translation (also available online)
DYNAMIC CDS7915 [79:42 + 72:25]
This concert production of Macbeth from the 2020 Festival Verdi in Parma won the XXXX Premio Franco Abbiati della Critica Musicale Italiana. Until now, the opera has invariably been heard in its Italian form, but is here presented in the revised guise which Verdi prepared for its Paris revival in 1865, so this is what the cover calls a “world prèmiere (sic)” – read the correct spelling as above.
As with the previous Dynamic releases of the French versions of Italian operas, with the exception of Ludovic Tézier as the eponymous anti-hero, native French singers are in short supply; indeed, the whole cast here is otherwise all-Italian, a fact underlined by the allocation of Lady Macbeth’s opening (spoken) words, as she reads aloud Macbeth’s letter, to French actress Cassandre Berthon rather than to the singer of the role. Without excessive microphone amplification, her whispered delivery would surely not carry in the theatre but that does not matter in this recording. Otherwise, as is so often the case, it soon becomes clear that Italian singers are often not really at home singing in French, which compounds the problem that, especially in the choruses, the French translation does not always sit comfortably with the music. However, some allowance must surely be made for the novel advantage of hearing this version for the first time and certainly the French is mostly perfectly comprehensible, if not always perfectly accented. In any case, the French text and an English translation are provided – although strangely, it ascribes to Banquo some lines sung by Macbeth in their first meeting with the witches; otherwise, it is a rare and welcome luxury to have a complete libretto.
Silvia Dalla Benetta has a big, unwieldy soprano, powerful but somewhat deficient in the lower register, precisely where Callas excels, and like Callas, her voice turns shrill and flaps a bit in extremis but you cannot fault her commitment and any ugliness is vindicated by Verdi’s stated requirement that his Lady should have “the voice of a she-devil”. She certainly inhabits the role convincingly. Central to the part is the sleep-walking scene; it is here that anyone familiar with the Italian version will most miss that language but Dalla Benetta inflects the phrases with colour and variety – it’s just a pity that she cannot properly handle words featuring the nasal unsounded French “n” and that her voice lacks the darker hues; she relies heavily on a kind of frightened, chilling whine which is dramatically effective but misses a dimension found by such as Callas, Gencer and Verrett. Furthermore, she only fleetingly touches the D-flat at the end of the aria and it is squeaked, not held in the mesmerising fashion achieved by Callas.
Tézier might not be an ideal Verdi baritone but he has an elegant voice and injects considerable bite and amplitude into his tone. He occasionally resorts to throaty growls for emphasis and sometimes starts to labour a little on loud, high notes but he whacks out a good top G on “la victoire” at the end and delivers a commendable account, even if I don’t derive much sense of any inner torment from his straightforward singing of his final aria “Honneurs, respect, tendresse”; it needs more of the pathos found by such as Gobbi, Taddei, Milnes and Cappuccilli.
Riccardo Zanellato is a sturdy, sonorous Banquo. Tenor Giorgio Berrugi sings Macduff’s lament with style and passion in good French, sustaining legato admirably, and if he can do nothing about the banality of the music of the ensuing martial number, he nonetheless belts it out as if it were worth the effort. The chorus is enthusiastic even if the sopranos are sometimes shrill; “Ô patrie!” (“Patria oppressa!”) opening Act IV is feelingly sung. Abbado’s conducting is flexible, propulsive and wholly idiomatic; the grand, ensemble conclusion to Act II goes with the requisite, Verdian swing and the singing there is at its best. The revision having been devised for what Verdi called la grande boutique – the Paris Opéra - the ten minutes of ballet music is of course given in full and you can skip that track if it holds up the action too much for your taste. The low woodwind music during the ghostly apparitions of Act III is especially atmospheric and well-played and Tézier rises to the drama of the moment better than in his concluding aria.
The sound is first-rate – rich, full and ideally balanced. Ultimately, this is a decent, interesting performance of a rarity, even if there is no special magic about it. As I write you may sample the whole
recording on YouTube to help you decide whether you wish to invest; there is no alternative if you want to hear the Paris version and much about it is enjoyable.
Ralph Moore
