Yesterday brought my first opera of the season, a matinee of Verdi's Macbeth at the Lyric in Chicago. The singing and acting were first-rate. The opera, not so much. Macbeth lacks that melody (or several) you wait for beforehand and hum for two days afterward. And it has some serious dull stretches, exacerbated by an act structure that kept us imprisoned for nearly an hour and a half before the single intermission. (Note to opera companies everywhere - it's still legal to cut the score, y'know?)
I did get a few of the requisite chills at the end, as house snow fell on the victorious king and celebrants. And let me say this about Nadja Michael: wow. Still and all, the fact that a minor Verdi like Macbeth gets as much play as it does this many years after its conception is yet another illustration of how the opera repertory could use some - pardon the Shakespearean double entendre - fresh blood.
I know what you mean. I think A Masked Ball is in the same league as MacBeth, a minor Verdi, and it too gets a lot of play, perhaps more than it deserves. Fresh blood on Halloween is an apt request.
Posted by: Operatoonity | 10/31/2010 at 02:42 PM
Well, that's close. I'd say faith is belief that transcends reason. The danger is when people mistake that for belief that ignores reason.
Posted by: Bob | 03/12/2011 at 03:50 PM
Shakespeare's famous quote was, of course, based on commonplace observation.
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