BaL 25.04.15 - Verdi: Macbeth

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

9.30 am
Building a Library
Roger Parker compares recordings of Verdi's Macbeth and makes a personal recommendation.

Macbeth was Verdi's tenth opera and the first of three based on Shakespeare's plays. It was written when the composer was 34, before the astonishing success of Rigoletto, Il trovatore and La traviata brought him universal fame. The plot, following the corrupting effect of power and the destructive consequences of pursuing that power, provided rich material for the dramaturge in Verdi and was a marked departure from the romantic subjects of pretty much every other Italian opera dating from the first half of the 19th century.


Available versions:-

Coro e Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala, Claudio Abbado
Orchestra e Coro del Teatro Regio di Parma, Bruno Bartoletti (DVD/Blu-ray)
Wiener Staatsoper, Karl Bohm
Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana & Coro Lirico Marchigiano, Daniele Callegari (CD/DVD)
Symphony Orchestra & Chorus of the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Bruno Campanella (DVD)
Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Riccardo Chailly (CD/DVD)
Orchestre et Choeurs de l’Opéra national de Paris & Maîtrise des Hauts-de-Seine, Teodor Currentzis (DVD/Blu-ray)
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Ambrosian Opera Chorus, Wandsworth School Choir, Lamberto Gardelli (download)
English National Opera Orchestra, Edward Gardner (in English)
Orchestra e Coro di Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Vittorio Gui
Orchestra Internazionale d’Italia, Bratislava Chamber Choir, Marco Guidarini
Chor und Orchester der Staatsoper Berlin, Joseph Keilberth
WDR, Richard Kraus (in German)
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Erich Leinsdorf
The Metropolitan Opera Chorus & Orchestra, Chorus and Ballet, James Levine (DVD)
Orchestra and Chorus of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Molinari-Pradelli
Ambrosian Opera Chorus & New Philharmonia Orchestra, Riccardo Muti
Royal Opera Chorus & Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Antonio Pappano (DVD/Blu-ray)
Glyndebourne Festival Chorus, London Philharmonic Orchestra, John Pritchard (DVD)
Vienna Radio Choir & Orchestra, Argeo Quadri (in German)
Metropolitan Opera Chorus & Orchestra, Joseph Rosenstock
Orchestra & Chorus of La Scala, Milan, Victor de Sabata
Orchestra Filarmonica del Piemonte & Schola Cantorum San Gregorio Magno, Giuseppe Sabbatini (DVD/Blu-ray)
Chor der Wiener Staatsoper, Kammerchor der Salzburger Festspiele & Wiener Philharmoniker, Wolfgang Sawallisch
Orchestra & Coro Santa Cecilia Roma, Thomas Schippers
RSO-Frankfurt, Kurt Schröder
Chor und Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin, Giuseppe Sinopoli (download)
Zurich Opera, Franz Welser-Möst (DVD)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Since no-one appears to be talking about this BaL, I'll throw in my two-pennyworth. I first heard this opera when ITV announced they had put Verdi's Macbeth on the Christmas schedule. The tabloids showed themselves at their worst - "We want light entertainment" (etc.) A Mirror or Mail journalist (Mary Malone?) had a ranting/look-at-me column, and said "We don't want to watch ruddy Verdi".

The result of all this negative publicity was healthy viewing figures.

[visualnickmos]

This is lurking in my box of opera CDs (my 'opera box' )

Ambrosian Opera Chorus & New Philharmonia Orchestra, Riccardo Muti

Haven't listened for at least 15 years(!) but at the time that I found it, in one of those HMV Oxford Street sales (when they really were sales - in the late 80s/early 90s) I was absolutely 'grabbed' by it. Excellent opera..... should be a refreshing BaL.

[Barbirollians]

Abbado for me with Shirley Verrett .

[vinteuil]

... the Muti and the Leinsdorf are/were available in the EMI 'Verdi: The Great Operas' and in the 'Verdi at the Met' boxes, going cheap recently...

.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00A4AI17A

.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00DWOUY3Y

[verismissimo]

I must like this one a lot, as I have Schippers with Nilsson, Bohm with Ludwig, Leinsdorf with Rysanek, Muti with Cossotto, Gui with Varnay, de Sabata with Callas, bits of Goldschmidt with Grandi (live in 1947) and Abbado with Verrett.

And I agree with Barbi, its Verrett/Abbado for me.

[umslopogaas]

I have one that isnt on the list: Schippers cond. Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Rome. Taddei, Nilsson and Prevedi. Decca LPs, SET 282 - 4, dated 1964. I must play it, I feel in the mood for some Verdi.

[BBMmk2]

This be quite good as I don't have any Verdi opera. I don't seem to have much time these days!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The Schippers does seem to be still available, so I've added it to the list.

[Black Swan]

This will be an education for me. I don't have any recording of this work and don't think I have ever heard it. Although, I am sure I have heard some of the arias.

[LeMartinPecheur]

I definitely rate Joe Green as a great composer and dramatist and would positively gallop across the road to catch most of his operas live. But till recently I haven't bothered getting much on disc or even DVD. Falstaff (Toscanini) was a very early purchase as a lad back in the 70s but not a lot since, till a really silly price from Selections trapped me into buying a Regis box called 'Verdi - The great operas' (largely 1950s mono recordings).

But sadly, Macbeth doesn't seem to count. According to Regis his great operas are those from Rigoletto onwards, but excluding Ballo and Don Carlos!

[visualnickmos]

...According to Regis his great operas are those from Rigoletto onwards, but excluding Ballo and Don Carlos!

B****r Bognor!!!!!

[LeMartinPecheur]

B****r Bognor!!!!!

Took me a second, but

[verismissimo]

... But sadly, Macbeth doesn't seem to count. According to Regis his great operas are those from Rigoletto onwards, but excluding Ballo and Don Carlos!

I think that Macbeth is his great breakthrough - on a different level from what went before.

[Radames]

Macbeth is one of my favourite Verdi operas!

I have the Abbado and the De Sabata recordings. De Sabata is more original in many ways, he conducting is sublime, but the sound quality is really bad, so the superbly recorded and performed Abbado is the best for BaL by far.