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Macbeth Riccardo Muti Conductor Macbeth, General of King Duncan’S Army

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Macbeth Riccardo Muti Conductor Macbeth, General of King Duncan’S Army 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 Macbeth Music by Giuseppe Verdi Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave and Andrea Maffei, after Shakespeare’s Macbeth Riccardo Muti Conductor Macbeth, general of King Duncan’s army ............................................. Luca Salsi baritone Lady Macbeth, Macbeth’s wife ........................................................Tatiana Serjan soprano Banquo, general of King Duncan’s army ................................. Dmitry Belosselskiy bass Macduff, nobleman of Scotland, Thane of Fife ...............................Francesco Meli tenor Malcolm, 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, Milan, 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 Florence 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 Ernani.) 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 Nabucco and Attila, 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 Rigoletto, La traviata, for one, had enjoyed great success following its Il trovatore, Un ballo in maschera, and La forza premiere in Naples 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 sleepwalking scene 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 oboes and September 21, 2013, Orchestra english horn, two clarinets and bass June 26, 1981, Ravinia Festival. Renata Hall. Chicago Symphony Chorus clarinet, two bassoons, four horns, Scotto, Sherrill Milnes, Giuliano (Duain Wolfe, director), Riccardo two trumpets, three trombones and Ciannella, John Cheek, Timothy Muti conducting (ballet music and cimbasso, timpani, 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
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