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Louis Otey plays Macbeth and Lori Phillips plays Lady Macbeth in Arizona Opera's production of the Verdi opera.
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Synopsis
(Based on the 1865 Paris version of Verdi's work; performed in Italian with English surtitles.)
Act I
Macbeth and Banquo come upon a group of witches, who predict that Macbeth will become Thane of Cawdor and King of Scotland and Banquo will end up as the father of kings. Their predictions bear fruit when a messenger delivers news that Macbeth is now Thane of Cawdor.
Lady Macbeth, hungry for power, persuades her husband to kill the sitting royal, King Duncan, to make the second prediction for Macbeth come true. While a guest in Macbeth's castle, the king is killed. Macduff discovers the murder and rouses the court.
Act II
While the prophesy is playing out for Macbeth, he decides to derail Banquo's fortunes and hires killers to assassinate him and his son, Fleance, but Fleance escapes.
Later that night, Macbeth and his guests enjoy a lavish feast that's interrupted when Banquo's ghost appears to Macbeth, who addresses it while his guests look on. Aghast at her husband's behavior, Lady Macbeth urges him to compose himself. Macbeth later decides he needs to revisit the witches.
Act III
In their dark cave, the witches warn Macbeth of several things: that he should beware of Macduff; that he will be harmed by no man of woman born; and that he is invincible — until Birnam Wood marches toward him. Then eight kings file past — Banquo's progeny — and Macbeth tries to attack the apparitions but faints. When he comes to, he steels himself to boost his power.
Act IV
The people of Scotland have decided they've had enough of Macbeth's tyranny. Led by King Duncan's son, Malcolm, and Macduff — whose family Macbeth has murdered — the Scots hide their identities behind branches from Birnam Wood and march on Macbeth's castle.
Inside, Lady Macbeth can't shake the vision of Duncan's brutal murder, reliving it every night in her sleep. The strain of the guilt is so much that she dies.
Macbeth is unmoved by news of his wife's death, but he's stirred to panic when he is told that Birnam Wood is marching on his castle. The witches had warned him that this will be his death, so Macbeth fearlessly challenges Macduff to single combat. Macduff reveals that he was not born of woman, having been untimely ripped from his mother's womb, and Macbeth is fatally wounded.
Preview
● Giuseppe Verdi's "Macbeth"
Libretto by: Francesco Maria Piave.
Presented by: Arizona Opera.
Conducted by: Joel Revzen.
Stage director: Bernard Uzan.
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday.
Where: Tucson Music Hall, 260 S. Church Ave.
Tickets: $29-$106 through Ticketmaster, 321-1000.
Cast: Baritones Louis Otey and Welsh-born Phillip Joll alternate in the title role; sopranos Lori Phillips and Brenda Harris alternate in the role of Lady Macbeth.
Running time: 2 hours and 7 minutes.
Et cetera: "Macbeth," a co-production with Seattle Opera, will be staged in Phoenix Oct. 12-15.
Look for: A review of Saturday night's performance will run Sunday in Accent.

Accent

'Macbeth' ambitious

By Cathalena E. Burch
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 10.06.2006
Arizona Opera is making history with its season-opening production of Verdi's "Macbeth."
It is the first time in anyone's memory that the company has produced the classic opera. And it also rates as likely the most extravagant production in the company's 35 years: 250 costumes, 60 musicians in the pit, seven characters on the stage, 48 choristers, and numerous wig and costume changes.
Then there are the walls that bleed. The oozing substance is so invasive that the sets have to be replaced nightly.
To mount the production — a co-venture with the prestigious Seattle Opera — in its Tucson and Phoenix runs could cost as much as $800,000. That's roughly double the amount the company will pay to put on "Beauty and the Beast" next March, according to Arizona Opera figures.
"It is a huge production," said Joel Revzen, the company's artistic and general director and the man who will lead the orchestra. "It's very exciting for us. It's a very powerful, gripping production and one of the most technically challenging in our history."
Seattle approached Revzen about co-producing Bernard Uzan's take on Verdi's 1865 Paris version of "Macbeth" — a revision of the composer's original 1847 work based on Shakespeare's play.
"(Uzan's) concept of staging the work is very much attuned to what I think Verdi intended when he wrote the piece," Revzen said.
Seattle mounted the opera last May to mixed reviews. The Seattle Times said it was "ambitious but sometimes uneven. . . . This 'Macbeth' wavered between the convincing and the nonsensical." The Seattle Post-Intelligencer praised it as an "often brilliant, often awesome effort that linked drama and music."
Since Seattle, Uzan has tweaked the production. Revzen said Arizona gets an improved version.
"Everyone on our staff . . . is just left with their mouths hanging open," he gushed last week from his Tucson office.
The production will go to Dallas next year with the footnote that it was an original co-production of Tucson and Seattle. From there, it could go to other cities; Revzen said the production sets a new standard for staging Verdi's most beloved opera, and he suspects other companies will follow Uzan's model.
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