Macbeth in the afternoon, a quick bite at The Smith, then Così fan tutte.
Metropolitan Opera · three Orchestra seats · one interval.
Metropolitan Opera · three Orchestra seats.
Macbeth: Row V, seats 116–17, plus Row S, 108. Così: Row K, seats 114–16.
Verdi’s opera follows Shakespeare’s tragedy: Macbeth hears a prophecy, murders the king, and takes the crown. He and Lady Macbeth pay for it in fear and isolation.
The score uses the witches’ chorus, stark orchestral writing, and Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking scene to shape the drama.
The witches’ clipped rhythms, Macbeth’s reaction to the banquet ghost, and Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking scene.
Two young officers disguise themselves to test whether their fiancées will remain faithful. The women fall for the disguised men, and the wager affects both couples.
Mozart’s music gives each character a distinct point of view.
In the ensembles, the characters’ different reactions can be heard at once.
We stopped at The Smith between the matinee and evening show, then went back to the Met for Così fan tutte.
A few details to remember what we heard.
After hearing the witches’ prophecy, Macbeth and his wife murder King Duncan and take the crown. Guilt and fear undo them.
The witches’ clipped rhythms, the banquet scene when Macbeth sees Banquo’s ghost, and Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking aria, “Una macchia è qui tuttora.” “Patria oppressa,” sung by refugees, gave Italian audiences a lament that could also suggest their own country under foreign rule.
Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducted Quinn Kelsey, Lise Davidsen, Freddie De Tommaso, and Ryan Speedo Green. The Met’s 1959 house premiere starred Leonard Warren and Leonie Rysanek, conducted by Erich Leinsdorf.
1959 performance record ↗ · Met synopsis ↗ · 1959 recording ↗
Ferrando and Guglielmo disguise themselves to test their fiancées, Fiordiligi and Dorabella. The wager unsettles both couples, and the disguises become harder to dismiss as a game.
Fiordiligi’s leaps in “Come scoglio,” Ferrando’s “Un’aura amorosa,” and the three different feelings woven into “Soave sia il vento.”
Nimrod David Pfeffer conducted Federica Lombardi, Samantha Hankey, Ana María Martínez, Duke Kim, Andrey Zhilikhovsky, and Gerald Finley. Phelim McDermott’s production places the opera at a 1950s boardwalk amusement park.
Met production ↗ · 1990 performance record ↗ · 1990 recording ↗
Macbeth was Verdi’s first opera drawn from Shakespeare. He gave detailed direction to the first Lady Macbeth, Marianna Barbieri-Nini, asking for a dark, unpolished sound. In 1865 he revised the opera for Paris, adding music and changing the ending.
Così fan tutte was Mozart and librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte’s third opera together, after The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni. It premiered in Vienna on January 26, 1790. Da Ponte later said its plot came from a real wager among officers, though that story is unconfirmed.