"Mention Macbeth — The Opera and most think of Verdi. Ernest Bloch took on the subject more than half a century later, in Paris in 1910, when Verdi’s version was almost as obscure as Bloch’s is today.......""This is an opera which concentrates on private moments, monologues and dialogues; the sleepwalking scene is a private nightmare, without the usual pair of onlookers. Far more of the play’s soliloquys survive than in the libretto Piave wrote for Verdi; even the Drunken Porter makes an appearance, with the opera’s one straightforward strophic song; a contrast in word-setting which reflects Shakespeare’s own switch from blank verse to prose. The score is primarily reminiscent of Debussy in its often rather nebulous drift through the text, but has shades of Salome and Götterdämmerung as well."
Full review with pictures ! of the production at UC Opera, London by Ruth Elleson in Opera Today
http://www.operatoday.com/content/2009/03/blochs_macbeth_.php
1 comment:
Did not see this interesting post (and the one you sent on the Kingshasa Symphony too is very moving and makes you think a little!). So the opera is originally sung in French. What a formidable era this must has been in Paris. The librettist is actually the same man behind Enesco's Oedipe (Edmond Fleg). Seems Bloch is hardly played now apart from the heartbreaking Schlemolo and Nigun. This is a shame for the music, different and single in its times. I would love to hear this Macbeth one day. I will look for the DVD.
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