[Met Performance] CID:197580
Macbeth {19} Metropolitan Opera House: 03/19/1964.
(Review)
Metropolitan Opera House
March 19, 1964
MACBETH {19}
Giuseppe Verdi--Francesco Maria Piave/Andrea Maffei
Macbeth.................Cornell MacNeil
Lady Macbeth............Birgit Nilsson
Banquo..................Jerome Hines
Macduff.................George Shirley
Malcolm.................Franco Ghitti
Lady-in-Attendance......Carlotta Ordassy
Physician...............Gerhard Pechner
Manservant..............Edward Ghazal
Duncan..................Walter Hemmerly
Murderer................Russell Christopher
Warrior.................William Walker
Bloody Child............Lynn Blair
Crowned Child...........Joy Clements
Conductor...............Nello Santi
Director................Carl Ebert
Staged by...............Nathaniel Merrill
Designer................Caspar Neher
Choreographer...........Zachary Solov
Macbeth received six performances this season.
Review of John Ardoin in Musical America
The Met has restored the brief scene outside the Witches' Cave at the end of Act III between Macbeth and his Lady (not seen since '58-'59) and omitted the ballet music which was used to bridge Act III and the first scene of Act IV. This year, as in '61-'62, Macbeth is allowed to do battle with Macduff and not left to die alone on the stage. It is too late in the game to carp further about the chalky, expressionistic sets and costumes of the late Caspar Neher, and some of the oratorio staging in the production. Both were as distracting and distressing as ever.
The focal point of the evening was Birgit Nilsson. The demanding role of Lady Macbeth brought the soprano her first fame back in '47 when she made her debut with the Royal Opera in Stockholm. After this she shelved the role, returning to it only early this year for appearances at La Scala. It would be foolish to say that the role is easy for Miss Nilsson, but it can be said that she made the role sound easy and herein lay the rub. She sailed through the part without creating a sense of tension or thrust and without savoring the marvelous Verdian lines (she was also downright stingy with her top notes in the first-act aria). It was vocalizing of Miss Nilsson's accustomed high order, but it was far from the malevolent, dark sounds Verdi wished. She tried to make a stronger point with the Sleepwalking Scene with assorted grimaces and gurgles, but this attempt at vocal acting was more awkward than organic. Surprisingly there were numerous pitch problems in this important scene which one does not normally associate with Miss Nilsson. To merely sing Lady Macbeth is not enough, and the inescapable impression Miss Nilsson created was one of boredom.