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Sometimes being ambitious comes at a price.

Take Arizona Opera's $800,000 production of Verdi's "Macbeth," as envisioned by the innovative stage director Bernard Uzan.

There was much to admire in Uzan's dark and brooding take on Verdi's landmark opera, based on Shakespeare's play of sordid greed and ambition run amok. But some of those things we admired most — the gothic lighting; Robert Israel's high-tech box set with stage doors that rolled up like garage doors; 48 choristers that made up the townspeople, soldiers and a caldron of shrill witches; and enough costume changes (250 costumes in all) to make Cher drool — were also the things that bogged down the production to the point of distraction.

At times in its opening Saturday night, it seemed that having so many people on stage was too unwieldy. Throughout the nearly three-hour performance you could hear the cast plodding off stage, a couple times just as the next scene was unfolding.

That in itself wouldn't have been so bad had those roll-up doors not squeaked on occasion. Then there was that uncomfortable few minutes in the middle of the second act, when the audience of 1,900 was left sitting for several moments in darkness and silence. I suspect it was to allow the actors time to assume their positions or perhaps it took longer than expected for the costume changes.

Hopefully, these were opening night jitters and miscues that were ironed out by Sunday's matinee, the final Tucson performance before the production moved to Phoenix for its run this weekend.

"Macbeth" is a coproduction with the Seattle Opera, which mounted the production last spring. Seattle designed the elaborate, Elizabethan costumes and the scenery, which included those walls that bled.

Only on Saturday, they didn't really bleed as much as anticipated. Only one panel of the back wall actually oozed blood. The other four kind of sweated blood.

That scene, though, was classic Uzan, intense and meant to take literally what Shakespeare and Verdi meant figuratively. Uzan has done that with the Arizona Opera before; last season, he was the creative mind behind the uneven, but over-the-top production of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's "Threepenny Opera," which had actors holding giant placards with the message the audience was supposed to take away from the action.

In "Macbeth," Uzan has Lady Macbeth, sung by the soprano Lori Phillips, rubbing her blood stained hands on the wall in the fourth act. She is sleepwalking and fraught with guilt at having pushed her husband to kill King Duncan and ascend the throne.

"Out damn spot," she sings, then rubs her hand on her white nightgown which is now spotted with dark blood and the walls behind her begin bleeding. Phillips sings with mostly soaring beauty, projecting the high end of her register with aching clarity. But when it came to the lower register, she couldn't hold the notes and her voice seemed to evaporate.

Another memorable scene was the feast celebrating Macbeth's ascension to the throne, when the full cast of choristers and key characters seemed to move about with ease around a large banquet table. It was the only time that the entire cast comfortably fit on the stage.

That scene also tested the mettle of baritone Phillip Joll, who assumed the role of Macbeth after the baritone Louis Otey was mysteriously indisposed, according to an announcement made before the show started. (Otey had to bow out one act into his only appearance in the Seattle production after developing vocal problems, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.)

Joll possesses a robust baritone that didn't fail him on Saturday. He was convincing as a man tormented by guilt but ruled by ambition.

Contact reporter Cathalena E. Burch at cburch@azstarnet.com or 573-4642.