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Home , Andrea Maffei, Dmitry Belosselskiy, Eugenia Tadolini, Felice Varesi, Francesco Meli, Macbeth (Bloch)

Program

One Hundred Twenty-Third Season Chicago Symphony Orchestra Riccardo Muti Music Director Pierre Boulez Helen Regenstein Conductor Emeritus Yo-Yo Ma Judson and Joyce Green Creative Consultant Global Sponsor of the CSO

Saturday, September 28, 2013, at 7:00 Friday, October 4, 2013, at 7:00 Tuesday, October 1, 2013, at 7:00 Sunday, October 6, 2013, at 3:00 Music by Libretto by and Andrea Maffei, after Shakespeare’s Macbeth Riccardo Muti Conductor Macbeth, general of ’s army...... Luca Salsi , Macbeth’s wife...... Tatiana Serjan soprano , general of King Duncan’s army...... Dmitry Belosselskiy bass , nobleman of Scotland, Thane of Fife...... Francesco Meli , Duncan’s son...... Antonello Ceron tenor Lady-in-Waiting...... Simge Büyükedes soprano Assassin/Doctor...... Gianluca Buratto bass Servant/Herald...... Daniel Eifert bass Three Apparitions...... David Govertsen bass . Katelyn Casey treble . Lily Shorney treble Witches, king’s messengers, Scottish noblemen and exiles, assassins, English soldiers, aerial spirits Chicago Symphony Chorus Duain Wolfe Chorus Director Act 1 Intermission Act 2 Intermission Act 3 Act 4 The setting is in Scotland, primarily in Macbeth’s castle. Act 4 opens on the border between Scotland and England, then returns to Macbeth’s castle. First Chicago Symphony Orchestra subscription concert performances English supertitles © 2013 by Sonya Friedman

Sponsorship of the music director and related programs is provided in part by a generous gift from the Zell Family Foundation. CSO Tuesday series concerts are sponsored by United Airlines.

This program is partially supported by grants from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Comments by Phillip Huscher

Giuseppe Verdi Born October 10, 1813, Roncole, near Busseto, Italy. Died January 27, 1901, , Italy. Macbeth

acbeth always held a special when he first sent the poet his own place in Verdi’s affec- detailed prose scenario of the play, tions. Shortly after broken into acts, scenes, and even the successful premiere of the musical numbers, to get Piave operaM in in 1847, Verdi charged up to begin their new sent a dedication copy of the libretto. (They had worked score to Antonio Barezzi, his together once before, on father-in-law, saying, “Here .) Verdi knew precisely now is this Macbeth, which I what he wanted before he love above all my other operas.” even composed a note, and That was still early in Verdi’s he warned Piave: “I’ve got the long career—Macbeth, the tenth general character and the color of of his more than two dozen operas the opera into my head just as if the and composed when he was just libretto were already written.” thirty-three, follows the huge successes The choice of Macbeth as an opera of and , but comes before many of subject was bold and unexpected in 1847—the the works we know today as prime Verdi. Yet play had not yet even been staged in Italy. (It he continued to think of Macbeth with special would be soon, but only after Verdi’s success with pride even after writing operas that secured the opera.) And although Shakespeare was not his place as the greatest Italian composer of an unusual source for opera—Rossini’s Otello, his century, including , , for one, had enjoyed great success following its , Un ballo in maschera, and La forza premiere in in 1816—Verdi’s reverence for del destino. When he was asked to provide new Shakespeare and his fidelity to the plot and spirit ballet music for a production of Macbeth in Paris of the play were exceptional at the time. No opera in 1865, he jumped at the chance to revisit the in the nineteenth century would be more truly whole score, convinced that now, more than Shakespearean in stature than Macbeth—until fifteen years later, he could make it even finer. Verdi’s own Otello, completed four decades after Macbeth is the earliest product of Verdi’s great he began Macbeth. love for Shakespeare. In 1865, when a French As soon as he started to receive portions of critic, reviewing the revised Paris version of the text, Verdi turned on Piave—there were too Macbeth, suggested that Verdi did not know his many lines, the tone wasn’t lofty enough, the Shakespeare, the composer was irate: “It may meter of certain stanzas sounded off, phrases be that I have not done justice to Macbeth; but were commonplace or clichéd. “Not one use- to say that I do not know, understand, and feel less word: everything must say something,” Shakespeare—no, by God, no! He is one of my he chastised him. A few places, such as the favorite poets. I have had him in my hands from opening of the second act—one of the spots my earliest youth, and I read and reread him where the scenario departs most radically from continually.” Verdi had taken unusual care with Shakespeare—continued to trouble Verdi: should the text for his Macbeth from the start. “This it be a soliloquy for Lady Macbeth or a dialogue tragedy is one of the greatest creations of man,” with her husband? Should she read aloud a he wrote to letter from Macbeth? “Oh, I beg you,” he wrote Francesco to Piave, “take great care with this Macbeth of Above: Verdi in 1870 Maria Piave, mine. . . . Brevity and sublimity.”

2 Eventually Verdi lost his patience and asked the librettist’s job to negotiate staging details his friend, the writer Andrea Maffei, to step in with theater management, Verdi intervened, and rewrite the libretto, “since to be frank,” he dictating the number of witches he wanted; told Piave, “I couldn’t have set your verses to rejecting the costume designs (the use of velvet music.” It’s difficult today to tell precisely how and silk was anachronistic, he pointed out); argu- much of Piave’s original libretto remains, but we ing that the singer playing Banquo should also do know that Maffei scrapped the act 3 witches’ appear as Banquo’s ghost; lecturing on English chorus and Lady Macbeth’s and Scottish history; and, in general, urging the completely and started over. Maffei was given a theater to spare no expense. British experts were gold watch consulted; a magic lantern for special effects was for his rescue ordered from Milan. operation. Even before he began composing the music, Piave was Verdi contacted Felice Varesi, a celebrated high paid off in baritone—he would later create the role of full, but his Rigoletto—to make sure he was available to sing name was Macbeth. During the composition process, he left off the began writing to Varesi, telling him how to sing title page: “I the music as he sent it to him, piece by piece. His wouldn’t have letters read like a rigorous coaching session, with your injury advice about dramatic motivation, admonitions to for all the obey the dynamic markings carefully—Verdi had gold in the never before been so meticulous in his attention to world,” Verdi fine shadings (in the final score, the music shrinks said finally. at one point to a virtually inaudible pppppp)—and Although it Andrea Maffei thoughts about the unusual vocal colors he had in was normally mind. Throughout, there is one overriding idea:

Composed November 2, 3 & 4, 1989, Orchestra CSO RECORDINGS 1847, revised 1865 Hall. Chicago Symphony Chorus 1981. Renata Scotto, Gene Marie (Margaret Hillis, director; Terry Callahan, and Terry Cook as soloists; First performances Edwards, guest chorus master), James Levine conducting. CSO (From March 14, 1847; Teatro della Pergola, Sir Georg Solti (November 2 & 3) the Archives, vol. 18: A Tribute to James Florence, Italy and Kenneth Jean (November 4) Levine) (“Una macchia è qui tuttora”) conducting (“Tre volte miagola” and April 19, 1865; Théâtre-Lyrique, Paris, 1989. Chicago Symphony Chorus “Patria oppressa!”) France (revised version) (Margaret Hillis, director; Terry Edwards, guest chorus master), Sir MOST RECENT FIRST CSO PERFORMANCES Georg Solti conducting. London (“Tre CSO PERFORMANCES July 21, 1977, Ravinia Festival. Marisa volte miagola” and “Patria oppressa!”) September 19, 2013, Orchestra Hall. Galvany and Cornell MacNeil as Riccardo Muti conducting (bal- soloists; James Levine conducting Instrumentation let music) (arias and duets) flute and piccolo, two and September 21, 2013, Orchestra english horn, two and bass June 26, 1981, Ravinia Festival. Renata Hall. Chicago Symphony Chorus , two , four horns, Scotto, Sherrill Milnes, Giuliano (Duain Wolfe, director), Riccardo two , three and Ciannella, John Cheek, Timothy Muti conducting (ballet music and cimbasso, , percussion, harp, Jenkins, Gene Marie Callahan, Michelle “Patria oppressa!”) strings, offstage banda Harman-Gulick, Sharon Graham, Duane Clenton Carter, Rush Tully, These are the Chicago Symphony Approximate and Terry Cook as soloists; Chicago Orchestra’s first subscription concert performance time Symphony Chorus (Margaret Hillis, performances of Verdi’s Macbeth. Act 1: 48 minutes director; James Winfield, associate Act 2: 31 minutes director); James Levine conducting Acts 3 & 4: 71 minutes (complete opera)

3 “I shall never devilish.” Even long distance, Verdi continued stop telling to coach. He insisted that the two keys to the you to study opera were the sleepwalking scene and the duet the words and for the , and that “they must be acted the dramatic and declaimed in a voice that is hollow and situation; then veiled: without this the whole effect is lost.” the music The duet is the music Verdi had rehearsed again will come and again before the first performance and it is on its own.” the piece that was most often encored over the Marianna years—in the early days, sometimes even three Barbieri-Nini, or four times an evening. In city after city, the the first Lady novelties in Verdi’s score—the fantastical scene Macbeth, got of the apparitions, with its supernatural sounds the same mes- and subterranean wind music, or Lady Macbeth’s Francesco Maria Piave sage: “I wish haunted sleepwalking scene, with its eerie, the perform- mesmerizing accompaniment—never failed to ers to serve make their effect. the poet better than they serve the composer.” Throughout the rehearsal period in Florence, he idea of presenting Macbeth in Paris Verdi was ever-present, bossy, and sometimes came up before Verdi even finished the unreasonable. Right up to the hour before the score, but despite various proposals over premiere, when Verdi called his two principals theT following years, both from the Paris Opéra into his dressing room for one last master class, and the Théâtre-Italien, talks came to noth- he did not give up his quest for making the music ing. Then, in 1864, he was approached by Leon serve the drama. Carvalho, the head of the Théâtre-Lyrique in Macbeth was a huge success with the Florentine Paris, who wanted to revive Macbeth with a new public—among the most discriminating in all ballet, to satisfy French tradition, and a final of Europe—when it opened on March 14, 1847, chorus to replace Macbeth’s solo death scene. at the Teatro della Pergola. In the course of the Verdi agreed. But when he paged through evening, Verdi was called onstage twenty-seven the full score, he knew at once that he had times. After the second performance, a large more work to do—he wanted the chance to crowd of fans, “who yelled like the damned,” rethink the entire opera. He told Carvalho according to Varesi, followed him through the he needed more time and set to work. streets back to his hotel. Over the next few years, For revisions to the libretto, he turned to Verdi paid close attention to the opera’s reception Piave, who was now back in favor, although their as it made the rounds of other important opera collaboration was once again labored and conten- theaters and even supervised stagings in Rome tious. Rewriting the music took him all winter. and himself. (Macbeth was premiered Verdi found it painful to “take up a thread which in New York and Boston as early as 1850, a sure had been broken so many years ago,” he said, sign of its popularity and importance, and moved realizing how far he had traveled as a composer on to San Francisco and Philadelphia within in little more than fifteen years—from the raw, the decade.) When he heard that the impresario volcanic energy of Attila to the rich, subtly at the in Naples wanted to colored canvases of Un ballo in maschera and La cast Eugenia Tadolini, a highly accomplished forza del destino. “I’ll be able to manage it soon soprano, as Lady Macbeth, Verdi put his foot enough,” he said, “but I detest mosaics in music.” down, insisting that she was the wrong kind Once he began, however, he regained his old of singer for this dramatic role: “Tadolini has a passion for the opera, and he discovered a master marvelous voice, clear, limpid, and strong; and editor’s instinct for identifying what could stay, I would rather that Lady’s voice were rough, what needed a simple touch-up, what demanded hollow, stifled. Tadolini’s voice has something a radical makeover, and what must be completely angelic in it. Lady’s should have something scrapped and replaced. He left most of act 1

4 alone, fine-tuning only the popular duet. He otherworldly color of their music—to linger over gave Lady Macbeth a magnificent new aria, “La the whole opera. From the start—it is mentioned luce langue,” one of the opera’s most power- in his earliest surviving letter on the opera— ful numbers, to open act 2. Most of act 3 was Verdi intended the score to be in the genere significantly reworked; the new ballet music was fantastico—a work in which the supernatural and added near the top of the act; and, for the finale, the diabolical play a decisive role. Macbeth’s aria was replaced by a thrilling new The new ballet, in particular, gave Verdi duet for Macbeth and his wife, “Ora di morte.” headaches. In order to satisfy French conventions For the chorus that begins act 4, Verdi kept the and dramatic logic, it would have to come at the text, but set it to entirely new music—bold, mag- beginning of act 3, when the only characters nificent, and unorthodox—it is an early foretaste onstage were the witches, and to have them of the Requiem, still nearly a decade away. (Verdi dance for some ten or more minutes would, as always thought of this as an important number; Verdi rightly observed, “make a pretty frantic even in 1847, before he had written a note of divertissement.” Eventually, Verdi decided to music, he told Piave to pay particular attention to make the ballet a mixture of dance and mime, the text for a chorus of Scottish exiles, “the one and to introduce Hecate as a nondancing charac- moment of real pathos in the opera.”) And, as he ter. Verdi wanted the new ballet to fit as seam- promised Carvalho, the ending of the opera is lessly as possible into the drama, and he lavished new: instead of Macbeth’s onstage death scene, the same degree of care on it that had character- there is now a grand victory chorus in honor of ized his work on the opera itself. Malcolm, the new king, after Macbeth has been slain offstage. erdi was puzzled, and plainly angered, Although Verdi reconsidered every measure when Macbeth failed to satisfy the in his score, sometimes making only the slight- sophisticated Parisian public. Attendance est change or adjusting the instrumentation, Vwas poor for the entire run and the box office he did not touch Lady Macbeth’s celebrated take was meager. “I thought I had not done sleepwalking scene in act 4. It had been one of too badly,” he wrote to Escudier, “but it seems his greatest inspirations in 1847, and he had I was mistaken.” Escudier blamed the empty worked hard to achieve a kind of music—spare, seats on a heat wave sweeping across Paris. He exposed, and dramatically driven—that was new did not mention competition from the eagerly to Italian opera at the time. “The notes are simple anticipated premiere of Meyerbeer’s L’Africaine and are created with the action in mind,” he at the Opéra. The Paris critics, long irritated wrote to Barbieri-Nini, his first Lady Macbeth. by Verdi’s unparalleled string of hits in his “Remember that every word has a meaning, homeland, came down hard on Macbeth; they and that it is absolutely essential to express that complained about the uneasy mix of early and meaning both with the voice and in the acting.” later styles, and lamented the lack of a romantic (With Verdi’s encouragement, Barbieri-Nini interest: “No love, no tenderness, no charm,” consulted an actual sleepwalker.) wrote the reviewer for Le ménestrel, who, unlike Revisiting Macbeth clarified Verdi’s concept of Verdi, apparently did not know his Shakespeare. the drama. “The main roles of this opera are, and It took some time for the depth of Verdi’s can only be, three,” he wrote to his French pub- achievement to be understood. The new Macbeth lisher, Leon Escudier, “Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, entered the repertoire slowly. Few productions and the chorus of witches.” The musical promi- were staged in Italy in Verdi’s lifetime, and many nence of the witches had been one of Verdi’s theaters continued to perform the original score, masterstrokes from the start (the opera, like the even though Verdi considered the later version play, starts with them). “The witches dominate definitive. The modern reappraisal of the revised the drama,” he now said. “Everything stems from Macbeth came only after the First World War. them—rude and gossipy in act 1, exalted and Today, Macbeth is recognized as one of Verdi’s prophetic in act 3. They make up a real character, finest and most richly satisfying works, and the and one of the greatest importance.” Verdi even revised score is now the edition of choice. (At said he wanted the spirit of the witches—and the these performances, Riccardo Muti conducts

5 Frontispiece of the first edition of the opera Macbeth, 1847 the complete 1865 version, including the often- which Verdi’s respect for his material continu- omitted ballet music, in the recent critical edition ally drove him to new heights of invention and jointly published by the University of Chicago novelty, all within the conventional framework Press and Ricordi.) of nineteenth-century operatic tradition. What Macbeth is unique in Verdi’s output. The later had been the most thoughtfully composed of his revision of would take longer to early operas now became one of the most satisfy- get from its original to its final version, and the ing of all his works—an opera in which keen subsequent reworkings of La forza del destino and psychological insight is ideally matched to music would produce some extraordinary of exceptional emotional nuance. A decade after music, but no other opera would bridge so great the Paris premiere, when a journalist asked Verdi a gulf stylistically as that between the early and for his opinion of the significance of Richard the mature Verdi of the two Macbeths. The final Wagner, his exact contemporary, Verdi offered a work is, as Verdi himself predicted, something few well-chosen words of praise for the German of a “mosaic,”—the seams occasionally show master and then added, “I, too, have attempted and the juxtaposition of music composed nearly the fusion of music and drama—in Macbeth.” two decades apart is sometimes jarring. But in the context of Verdi’s fifty-four year career, Macbeth is a work of unparalleled ambition and Phillip Huscher is the program annotator for the Chicago striving. More than any other, it is the opera in Symphony Orchestra.

6 Synopsis of Macbeth

Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave and Andrea Maffei, based on the play by

Act 1 wife is unable to calm her unsettled husband, Scotland. Macbeth and Banquo, leaders of the and the courtiers wonder about the king’s Scottish army, meet a group of witches who strange behavior. Macduff vows to leave the prophesy the future. They address Macbeth as country, which is now ruled by criminals. and king of Scotland, and tell Banquo that he will be the father of kings. The Act 3 two men try to learn more, but the witches van- The witches gather again, and Macbeth visits ish. Messengers arrive with news that Duncan, them, demanding more prophecies. Apparitions the current king of Scotland, has made Macbeth warn him to beware of Macduff and assure him thane of Cawdor. The first part of the witches’ that “no man of woman born” can harm him, and prediction has come true. that he will be invincible until Birnam Wood In Macbeth’s castle, Lady Macbeth reads marches on his castle. In another vision, he sees a letter from her husband telling her of the a procession of future kings, followed by Banquo. events that have just transpired. She resolves Horrified, Macbeth collapses. The witches disap- to follow her ambitions. A servant announces pear and his wife finds him. They resolve to kill that Duncan will soon arrive at the castle, and Macduff and his family. when Macbeth enters, she tells him that they must kill the king. Duncan arrives. Macbeth Act 4 has a vision of a dagger, then leaves to com- On the Scottish border, Macduff has joined the mit the murder. On his return, he tells his wife refugees. His wife and children have been killed. how the act has frightened him, and she tells Malcolm appears with British troops and leads him that he needs more courage. They both them to invade Scotland. leave as Banquo enters with Macduff, a noble- Lady Macbeth is sleepwalking, haunted by the man, who discovers the murder. Macbeth and horror of what she and her husband have done. Lady Macbeth pretend to be horrified and In another room in the castle, Macbeth join the others in condemning the murder. awaits the arrival of his enemies. He realizes that he will never live to a peaceful old age. Act 2 Messengers bring news that Lady Macbeth Macbeth has become king. Duncan’s son, has died, and that Birnam Wood appears to be Malcolm, is suspected of having killed his moving. English soldiers appear, camouflaged father and has fled to England. Worried about with its branches. Macduff confronts Macbeth the prophecy that Banquo’s children will rule, and tells him that he was not born naturally, Macbeth and his wife now plan to kill him and but had a Caesarean birth. He kills Macbeth his son, , as well. As Macbeth leaves to and proclaims Malcolm king of Scotland. prepare the double murder, Lady Macbeth hopes that it will finally make the throne secure. Outside the castle, assassins wait for Banquo, who appears with his son, warn- ing him of strange forebodings. Banquo is killed, but Fleance escapes. Lady Macbeth welcomes the court to the banquet hall and sings a drinking song, while Macbeth receives news that Banquo is dead and © . Reprinted with permission. his son has escaped. About to take Banquo’s For information about the Metropolitan Opera and its programs visit seat at the table, Macbeth has a terrifying metopera.org vision of the dead man accusing him. His © 2013 Chicago Symphony Orchestra

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