Macbeth review

Maxine Braham, best known as a choreographer, stages Verdi’s earliest Shakespearean opera for Hampshire’s Grange Festival – and the results are largely mixed.

A small pile of large volumes is placed where the prompt box used to be: the set is a library, with a spiral staircase leading up to the higher level. Torn-out pages from books rain down on Lady Macbeth following her first big scene.

The costuming of the principals is broadly traditional – one might almost be watching a 19th-century production (Verdi’s opera dates from 1847 and its revision from 1865). Still, the witches, with their diverse and curious mixture of often contemporary styles, are up-to-date.

Unlike Shakespeare’s trio of individuals, Verdi fields an entire chorus of witches, divided into three groups. In this production, they appear far more frequently than required, infiltrating scenes where their presence and general hyperactivity regularly upstage the principals.

Five dancers also take part – though oddly, the substantial ballet sequence Verdi added for the revised version is not included.

Visually, there are striking moments – one particularly horrific one when the bloodied corpse of Duncan (Xavi Monreal) is brought on at the end of Act I to the understandable shock of the chorus and other characters – feigned, of course, in the case of Macbeth and his Lady.

Following Banquo’s assassination, Fleance (Kai Patel) is led to safety by one of the witches: not an original idea – it is used in Phyllida Lloyd’s Royal Opera production, for instance – but a good one.

Elsewhere, there is simply too much additional activity to maintain a clear focus on the narrative: the apparitions scene is impossibly overcrowded and untidy –  less would have been more.

The best of the central performances is Judith Howarth’s Lady Macbeth. An experienced and expert singer, she understands the reason for every word of the text and every single one of Verdi’s notes – delivering both with outstanding authority. Her complex character is firmly and thoughtfully conveyed.

By her side, Gezim Myshketa’s Macbeth fields a strong baritone ideally suited to the Verdi repertoire – though at times, in this small theatre, he allows it too free a rein. There’s not enough light and shade in his performance – vocally or dramatically.

Jonathan Lemalu is a solid, if vocally soft-grained Banquo – a true bass rather than a bass-baritone is really required. Samuel Sakker offers a fine tenor as Macduff but allows his important aria to become a touch lachrymose. Andrés Presno makes his mark as Malcolm.

The chorus makes a thrilling sound while the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra is on good form in the pit. Returning to The Grange, conductor Francesco Cilluffo once again shows his expertise in the 19th-century Italian repertoire, bringing energy and impetus to his task.