"It was a great public service page in the name of culture and hope".
Thus the CEO of Rai Carlo Fuortes comments on the listening result of Verdi's Macbeth which opened the season of the Teatro alla Scala, broadcast live by Rai Cultura on Rai1 and followed by 2 million and 64 thousand people, with a share 10.5 per cent.
"Rai's mission - continues Fuortes - which is also our challenge, is to bring opera to everyone. Because great music belongs to everyone. We do it throughout the year, broadcasting shows and concerts from all over Italy and even from abroad. But once a year, on December 7, we make it even more certain to contribute to the spread of musical culture. A special thanks goes to all the Rai staff, who have been busy shooting the show for weeks. And of course alla Scala, the maestro Riccardo Chailly, the director Davide Livermore, the cast, the orchestra, the choir and all the workers involved ". "All of us have been away from theaters for long months, due to thehealth emergency - concludes Fuortes - months during which Rai has multiplied its cultural offer. Today the desire to go to the theater must return to each of us. And we hope that the success of Macbeth will contribute to this too ".
Last night
ovation for Sergio Mattarella
at the La Scala theater in Milan for the premiere of Macbeth, in what could be his last presence at the appointment of Sant'Ambrogio as president of the Republic. Tribute by the public of La Scala to the head of state at his entrance with numerous shouts of 'bis'. The mayor of Milan, Giuseppe Sala invites the president to 'not pull by the jacket'. Twelve minutes of applause for the show, but disapproval for the direction from the gallery.
The more than 12 minutes of applause and the contrasts between the approval of the public for the direction of Riccardo Chailly and for the singers and the salvos of whistles and buu from the gallery directed by Davide Livermore, have given Milan the Scala as always, with the its eternal polemics, canceling two years of pandemic. Were it not for the masks worn strictly by all the spectators, last night's one could be mistaken for one of the numerous 7 December Scala that have so excited in the past: the work broadcast in different places in the city, live TV on Rai and in many countries of the world, the important guests, the Milan that counts. Last night the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella with the President of the Senate Casellati and the Ministers of Culture Franceschini and of Education Bianchi. And then Liliana Segre,Armani, Tronchetti Provera, Marina Berlusconi, Fedele Confalonieri and many other representatives of the jet set but also of the pop world, with Cesare Cremonini, Alessandro Cattelan, Luca Argentero.
The success of the show was underlined by the audience in the hall with warm applause to Anna Netrebko, for her interpretation of Lady Macbeth, who worked a lot on vocal colors and timbre research to get closer to a woman figure who Verdi wanted for this character. with 'harsh, muffled, dark voice'. Loud applause for Luca Salsi, a strong and victorious Macbeth general of the Scottish army, but weak of heart and dominated by ambition, who is instigated by the terrible Lady to commit the most infamous crimes, starting by stabbing his king in his sleep in order to take its place. Many applause for Ildar Abdrazakov, Banco, the other general, also killed by Macbeth's assassins who, aware of the horror of his crimes, is then haunted by his ghost.And approvals for the other performers: Francesco Meli (Macduff), Ivan Ayon Rivas (Malcom), Chiara Isotton, Andrea Pellegrini, Leonardo Galeazzi, Costantino Finucci, and above all for a great Scaligero choir directed by Alberto Malazzi.
Riccardo Chailly's direction was warmly appreciated and applauded
, which in the critical edition of Verdi's opera has taken up the death on stage of Macbeth, present only in the first edition of 1847. The particular story told by Verdi and the librettist Francesco Maria Piave, but even before that by William Shakespeare, takes place in 'XI century, but like all great masterpieces of literature and melodrama has its roots in the history of man and brings out the eternal conflicts between good and evil, between probity and crime. In this, the story of Macbeth is universal and its historical location becomes indifferent because it could have happened in any time and in any place. The same prophetic witches give the drama a supernatural element that has always been sought after by man.Davide Livermore is perfectly aware of this, placing Macbeth in our age: Gianluca Falaschi's costumes are inspired by the 1940s, Giò Forma's scenes use the most recent technologies to represent environments reminiscent of today's metropolises: one skyline, perhaps that of New York or Singapore (but in one scene there is also Milan, with the reference to the facade of a building never built, designed by the architect Piero Portaluppi in 1926), which is reflected in the sky or simply is upside down to indicate the upheaval caused by the criminal will of Macbeth, who in the first act shows up behind the wheel of a car.Giò Forma's scenes use the most recent technologies to represent environments reminiscent of today's metropolises: a skyline, perhaps that of New York or Singapore (but in one scene there is also Milan, with the reference to the facade of a building never built, designed by the architect Piero Portaluppi in 1926), which is mirrored in the sky or simply turned upside down to indicate the upheaval caused by the criminal will of Macbeth, who in the first act shows up behind the wheel of a car.Giò Forma's scenes use the most recent technologies to represent environments reminiscent of today's metropolises: a skyline, perhaps that of New York or Singapore (but in one scene there is also Milan, with the reference to the facade of a building never built, designed by the architect Piero Portaluppi in 1926), which is mirrored in the sky or simply turned upside down to indicate the upheaval caused by the criminal will of Macbeth, who in the first act shows up behind the wheel of a car.which is reflected in the sky or is simply turned upside down to indicate the upheaval caused by the criminal will of Macbeth, who in the first act shows up behind the wheel of a car.which is reflected in the sky or is simply turned upside down to indicate the upheaval caused by the criminal will of Macbeth, who in the first act shows up behind the wheel of a car.
A dystopian reality that Livermore compared to the one evoked in Christopher Nolan's film 'Inception' (2010), a science fiction thriller that explores dreamlike dimensions and with special effects investigates the human subconscious to uncover its secrets. The director thus tries to render Verdi's effort to delve into the subconscious of his protagonists to highlight their weaknesses and atrocities. Scenes and backdrops are created on gigantic screens on which images, still or moving, are projected, always intense and engaging. But the representation of the tragedy is also rendered through the colors of the costumes: intense red for Lady, black or gray for Macbeth, light dresses for Banco, a positive character. The third act dancers, introduced by Verdi for the Paris edition (1865) become modern ballet,pantomime with the choreography of Daniel Ezralow, during which Macbeth cuts through the air with a sword stroke and a huge splash of blood reddens the led-wall.
In the scenes that follow one another without stopping, an elevator takes the protagonists to the upper floors of power, as it plunges them into the underworld. A grate as large as the whole scene falls on the people of the 'oppressed homeland' imprisoning them, and is raised when Macduff arrives, to whom the usurper has had his wife and children killed returns from exile together with Malcom, the son of the murdered king, at the head of a liberation army. Lady sees all hope lost and, overwhelmed by remorse, sleepwalks, sings a touching piece of music on the upper part of the stage five meters high ("Una Macchia ..."). Livermore's television direction, which explores every fold of the characters using 'augmented reality' effects, shows it to the viewer poised on a skyscraper, suspended over an abyss,which is the very representation of his soul. The news of his death does not shock Macbeth too much ("Life! What does it matter?"). And shortly after, underlined by a huge explosion on the led wall, the tyrant's death at the hands of Macduff also arrives. The curtain falls, the long applause of the audience starts.
