George Petean | Macbeth
Ferruccio Furlanetto | Banquo
Tatiana Serjan | Lady Macbeth
Jorge de Leon | Macduff
Jinxu Xiahou | Malcolm
Jongmin Park | Spion
Donna Ellen | Kammerfrau
Alain Altinoglu | Dirigent
Christian Räth | Regie
Gary McCann | Ausstattung
George Petean | Macbeth
Ferruccio Furlanetto | Banquo
Tatiana Serjan | Lady Macbeth
Jorge de Leon | Macduff
Jinxu Xiahou | Malcolm
Jongmin Park | Spion
Donna Ellen | Kammerfrau
Alain Altinoglu | Dirigent
Christian Räth | Regie
Gary McCann | Ausstattung
The premiere on Oct. 4th aroused neither much enthusiasm nor any real delusion. Most of it went solidly, well-behaved and predictable. The stage setting is suitable for daily use, which seemed tob e a big priority (contrary to the previous production by Vera Nemirova which was never again staged after its premiere run in 2009). It has all the predictable ingredients for Macbeth. Military uniforms, a blood-red dress for the Lady, a lot of grey and black on stage.
George Petean has a lyric baritone of medium size and fine quality. He has a nice middle range and some good notes in the lower middle range. He would make a fine Kavaliersbariton, really, was his upper range better developed. He lacks much of what the role of Macbeth requires, but, yet, he does better than many of his colleagues today. The voice is too lyric für Macbeth and he neither has Lucic´s robustness and grand air nor Keenlyside´s more intellectual approach, but of the three I find him the finest „singer“ in this role. Either the house is too big or the voice is too small – or both. Petean lacks the power, the drive, the breath and broadness for those expansive Verdi phrases. „Due vaticini“ finds him a bit overstrained („pensier di sangue, d’onde sei nato?… Alla corona che m’offre il fato“). The voice is indeed very lyric, but he is smart enough to not „open up“ the middle range too much and let himself get carried away like Keenlyside. He does not resort to forcing and belting, but offers some fine singing, especially when taking the voice back to mezza voce or piano. He has some fine nuances really tries to offer some varied and flexible singing. „Pietà, rispetto, amore“ ws fine, although his top is neither easy nor does it carry particularly well. It´s finely phrased with a good vocal line. He doesn´t open up excessively at „aaah sol la bestemmia, ahi lasso! La nenia tua sarà!“ and keeps the voice focused and compact. The last piano note was very nicely done. But of course Macbeth needs more than some „nice“ singing. Andi f you don´t have sufficient vocal authority, you might still make up fort hat with an imposing and impressive stage appearance. Petean doesn´t have that either. He looks rather unhappy and uncomfortable in his military costume. No authority, no grandezza. There´s a whole dimension of the role missing, but, yet, in a smaller house, I´d prefer him over Lucic, Hampson or Keenlyside any time. He will be able to sing Macbeth for some time (if he is wise rather in smaller houses), but one can hear that it costs. Simply too much Verdi for this lyric voice in his calendar. That will damage his voice and cut short a career, which would deserve more.
Tatiana Serjan made her debut at the Wiener Staatsoper in this premiere. She started out a bit edgy and unsteady. It´s not a beautiful or big voice, a sort of grainy timbre, but she has some natural cutting edge, some metallic sound to it. In some passages where good agility is required, she sounds a little heavy. She also has a strange way to produce the top notes, as if they were truncated from the rest of the voice. The voice is also not particularly well placed and has the tendency to „move around“. – A certain unsteadyness which may well work for this role – if one tried to make a virtue out of necessity – but which needs polish and much more finesse for others in her repertory. Especially interval leaps or also the brindisi, where rhythmic precision and very exact singing is required (otherwise it´s just „stumbling“ through the music), show her deficits, although she tries hard. Clear diction is not among her strenghts either. She was at her best in „Vieni t´affretta“ and also the sleepwalking scene was not bad, where she showed some good mezze voci and piani. So on the whole: she, too, sings with nuance and tries to offer some varied singing, sounding best in the lyric passages, but without much charisma coming across.
Whenever I read a review about Ferruccio Furlanetto in the newspaper, people write about the „prince of basses“, his „noble“ sound, his „sophisticated singing“. And I wonder: Is my hearing impaired? The only positive thing I can think of when writing about Furlanetto, is, that he hasn´t changed much over the years. He still has his intonation issues, the discolouring oft he vowels, the ugly sound, the exaggerated loudness, bad taste.
Jorge De Leon was the low point. The voice projects badly, if at all. You can hear how he tries to maintain a line, but usually fails and messes up most ensemble scenes. – Especially the concertato at the end of act I. .
Altinoglu´s conducting was solid on the safe side. He has none of the frenetic drive and the intensity of a De Sabata or the subtle delicacy of Beecham in the sleepwalking scene. He keeps a fairly good balance between singers and orchestra. ance, without covering the singers and without making the orchestra sound all too light either. Of course, that´s far from enough, but for an opera conductor it seems already a lot considering today´s standards. Little applause after the scenes, short and determined clapping at the final curtian calls. Listen to the recording from la Scala here and the applause following it.
40 years and a world of difference…
Gertrude Rünger – Dieser Fleck da
Certo come si fa a mettere in scena un’opera senza un po’ di tute mimetiche… impossibile!