The Daily Telegraph

Anna Netrebko is scorching as Lady Macbeth at Covent Garden

- Opera By Rupert Christians­en

Macbeth Royal Opera House ★★★★★

The curse on the Scottish play seems to have been busy in recent weeks, generating duff reviews for production­s at the RSC and National Theatre. But, barring a few clunking stage-management glitches, this revival of Verdi’s operatic version hits the spot fair and square.

At its centre is a scorching performanc­e by the Russian superstar soprano Anna Netrebko, who presents a blackly regal and overtly fearsome Lady M, making no bones about her nastiness or lust for power.

In the first two acts, she spews fire and fury, sometimes cavalier as to matters of pitch yet always thrillingl­y vivid and energetic: she can ride the top line of the ensembles with the steely force of a power drill.

But she’s not merely sandblasti­ng: La

luce langue is dispatched with striking musical sensitivit­y and her fourth-act sleepwalki­ng scene is mesmerisin­gly subtle in its spookiness, delicately coloured, imaginativ­ely phrased and technicall­y assured. Here is grand old-school singing of a sort that one rarely hears nowadays, more’s the pity, and it emphatical­ly justifies Netrebko’s high reputation.

Zeljko Lučić’s Macbeth is rather overshadow­ed by the glamour of his stage wife, and his permanentl­y constipate­d expression suggests a disinclina­tion to compete with her histrionic­s. He too has his lapses in tuning, but his is a true Verdi baritone, firm in his grip on the line, and he stays the course bearlike to the end, signing off with a hotly remorseful Pietà, rispetto, amore.

No allowances are required for the engagement of Netrebko’s husband Yusif Eyvazov, who sings Macduff ’s aria with trenchant eloquence before joining Konu Kim’s sparky Malcolm in a stirring call to arms. Ildebrando D’arcangelo makes a properly baleful Banquo, and the enlarged chorus sounds healthy. They are all fortunate in their expert conductor: keeping the drama taut, Antonio Pappano provides an Italianate bravado that carries the singers along rather than swamping them.

Phyllida Lloyd’s 2002 staging has been revived by Daniel Dooner, and although it could have done with another rehearsal or two, it remains highly effective. Flashes of gilded primitive splendour illuminate the stony gloom, and the hovering witches pull the strings in a concept full of intelligen­t ideas and striking tableaux that sustain a fine dialogue between the different worlds of Shakespear­e’s play and Verdi’s opera.

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 ??  ?? Lust for power: Zeljko Lučić as Macbeth and Anna Netrebko as Lady Macbeth at the Royal Opera House
Lust for power: Zeljko Lučić as Macbeth and Anna Netrebko as Lady Macbeth at the Royal Opera House

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