麦克白

四幕歌剧
意大利语演唱
(俄英文字幕)

Credits

作曲:朱塞佩·威尔第
编剧及作词:夫兰切斯科·马里亚·皮亚威(改编自威廉·莎士比亚的同名作品)

音乐总监:瓦列里·捷吉耶夫
导演:大卫·麦维卡尔
布景设计:塔妮娅·麦卡尔林
灯光设计:大卫·坎宁安
首席钢琴伴奏者:奥莉加·克鲁科维奇,玛丽娜·列皮纳
合唱团总监:拉丽莎·什韦伊科弗丝卡娅
合唱团指挥:安娜·皮皮娅
助理导演:安娜·希什基娜

SYNOPSIS

故事发生在苏格兰,后来在苏格兰和英格兰国境。

第一幕
夜晚,三群女巫唱着咒语,边吵闹,边跳舞。这时从舞台后传来小鼓声,苏格兰国王邓肯王的两位将军麦克白和班可路过此地。女巫们看了,立刻对麦克白预言说:“你将是考特的领主,成为考特领主后便将登上苏格兰国王的宝座。”也预测班柯将有孩子是国王。不久,国王的使者来到并传达圣旨说:任命麦克白为考特的领主。他们两人因为女巫的预言立即应验而大感惊讶。而麦克白的内心已经燃炽起登上王位的野心。

麦克白夫人正在阅读现在已成为考特领主的丈夫来信,看到信中所提的女巫预言后,她野心高炽,无法压抑,准备不择手段篡夺王位。这时仆人进来报告说,今晚国王邓肯要来访并将在城堡里过夜,麦克白夫人知道后立即蓄意诱导丈夫谋杀国王。接着麦克白回来了,麦克白夫人怂恿她丈夫乘机弑君篡位。这时在麦克白面前浮现血淋淋的短剑幻影,让他梦中所见的道路,先走一步。麦克白把国王给杀了,但后来胆怯地对夫人说出杀害国王的恐怖情景。夫人为他打气,想嫁祸给卫兵,麦克白十分恐惧,拒绝再进去。凶悍的夫人就把丈夫的短剑抢过去,自己动手把卫兵杀死,然后和丈夫一起逃离现场。

接班的马克杜夫和班柯登场。此时东方已发白,马克杜夫就走进寝室想叫醒国王,却发现国王已被惨杀,惊慌地回来大声叫人。大伙闻讯赶来,众人高呼请神惩罚杀人者。

第二幕
在城堡中,麦克白成为苏格兰国王,而邓肯王儿子马尔康不得不逃亡到英格兰,因为大家将父亲的死归咎于儿子。但麦克白对于女巫所说“班柯将成为国王的父亲”的预言,深感到不安。于是夫人就耸恿他把班柯父子双双除掉以绝后患。丈夫走后,麦克白夫人就说为了保住王位,必须把所有的邪魔统统杀掉…

深夜,麦克白所派遣的刺客们埋伏在树后等待班柯父子从这儿经过。这时,班柯果然带着儿子来了,似乎意识到大祸将至,他满心忧虑。班柯遇刺身亡,但他的儿子侥幸逃脱。

堡内的大厅里正在举行着庆贺麦克白就任国王的欢宴,许多贵族和骑士们都被邀参加。麦克白唱着饮酒歌,但心情焦虑,这时有一名刺客前来向麦克白报告说,班柯已确实被杀,但儿子却逃掉了。麦克白半喜半忧,但当他要回座,却见班柯的幽灵血迹斑斑的坐在王位上。他的夫人一面拼命想让丈夫镇定,一面劝止想离开的贵宾们。但鬼魂一再出现,使得麦克白神智慌乱,他拔剑攻击,全场立刻大乱。朝臣马克杜夫已隐约看出他的破绽。

第三幕
洞外雷雨交加,惊天动地。洞内女巫们一面围绕在大锅旁煮着邪恶的药剂。一面唱出妖里妖气的歌曲跳着邪恶的舞蹈,这时麦克白前来请求巫女的帮助他为自己的未来感到不安。他要求女巫询问幽灵他的未来会怎么样。三个幽灵陆续警告他留意马克杜夫,并预测没有任何女人十月怀胎所生的人会杀害他。最后还说:“只要巴南的森林不移动,就不会被打败”。他会保持现在的荣耀。但是麦克白并不满意,他想确实知道班柯的儿子是否会继他之后登上王位。于是女巫让他看到八位国王的幻影,而最后一位竟是手拿镜子炫耀子孙的班柯。麦克白因恐怖而当场昏厥。众女巫回答麦克白的质疑后消失。马克白发誓要灭绝马克杜夫及其家族。

第四幕
S被麦克白追捕的苏格兰逃亡者们,在等待着能回到祖国的日子。接着,马克杜夫城堡被烧、爱妻和子女被杀,他一面怀念祖国,一面感叹自己未能保护他们。这时,先王邓肯的儿子马尔康,率领着许多土兵来到,命令砍下巴内森林的大树,利用树枝隐藏身体,向城里移动进攻。在马克杜夫和马尔康的引导下,唱出鼓舞士气的重唱曲。他们一起发誓复仇。

最近麦克白夫人因良心不安,常出来梦游。说着夫人果然出来,只见她手里拿着蜡烛、双目呆滞的在大厅内徘徊后又反复地搓洗双手,想把手上血迹洗净。

麦克白得悉马尔康已和敌对的英格兰联盟正向自己攻击而来,但他仍然相信巫女的预言,自己是天下无敌的。麦克白领军迎战,但他听到夫人已逝世的消息,心神不定,士兵又进来报告巴南的森林向前移动,更心生恐惧。敌人已经攻过来了,麦克白对忌讳的预言感到绝望。马克杜夫向麦克白进逼而来。马克杜夫和他决斗时,透露他是其母亲怀胎不足十月的早产儿时,麦克白真的胆寒了,自信与勇气顿失,马克杜夫便乘麦克白一时慌乱将他击毙。从舞台后传来雄壮的胜利欢呼声,被苏格兰驱逐的逃亡者和英格兰的土兵们簇拥下马尔康登场,马克杜夫推举马尔康为新国王。

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

“Here is my Macbeth, which I love more than my other operas”, wrote Giuseppe Verdi in 1847 to his father-in-law, friend and supporter Antonio Barezzi, to whom the opera score was dedicated. Being “the most daring and most ambitious” of his early works, this opera remained the composer’s favourite child till his death.
The first mention of Macbeth is found in Verdi’s letters of May 1846. By this time Verdi is not just popular, but he has also become the most fashionable composer not only in Italy. The popularity of the young composer (he is thirty-three) has crossed the Alps: Donizetti suggests staging his opera Ernani, which in Italy is already on at twenty-three theatres, in Vienne; similar proposals are received from directors of Parisian and London theatres. The premiere of Attila has just caused furore in Venice, then it’s production has already become even a greater success in Florence, Ferrare, Reggio, Livorno, Rovigo, Vicenze, Padue, Trieste, Cremone. There is not a single, even the smallest, theatre in Italy which has not staged his Nabucco and I Lombardi. The composer is bombarded with commissions from all sides and he works day and night, literally driving himself to nervous exhaustion. Amid other proposals he receives a commission from the impresario Alessandro Lanari to write an opera for della Pergola Theatre in Florence.
As usual, Verdi considers several possible subjects for work, this time — Die Rauber by Schiller (later set to music with the Italian title, Masnadieri), Die Ahntrau by Grillparzer and Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Gradually the composer’s thoughts center around Die Rauber and Macbeth and he starts developing both plots, not quite knowing yet, which one to prefer. However, as it often happens, the situation was resolved by the circumstances, in this case — by availability of singers selected by the composer. Verdi wrote Die Rauber, having in mind the brilliant tenor Gaetano Franceschini for the main part, but for a number of reasons the contract between the theatre and Franceschini was not concluded. Other eligible tenors could not be found and Verdi and Lanari decided in favour of Macbeth, as the title part was written for baritone, and a lead tenor ceased to be needed. The composer put aside the half-written score of Die Rauber and focused his efforts on Macbeth.
Verdi had always been interested in meaningful, profound, significant plotlines. At various times he had turned his attention to works by Lord Byron, Hugo, Schiller, Verner, Volter, Euripides, Racin, Dumas.. Macbeth was the composer’s first encounter with Shakespeare. And it was Shakespeare that brought up in his mind the theme, which later became one of the central subjects in the composer’s works, — “the tragedy of a man of spirit overwhelmed by a fatal passion”. The main hero of the play is the leader of the Scottish army Macbeth — a real “renaissance” character. Being a man of outstanding abilities — strong, courageous, talented, energetic, fearless, Macbeth, unlike the characters of early Shakespeare’s tragedies Iago and Edmund, who absolutely rejected goodness, undoubtedly knew the difference between good and evil. This makes the tragic contradiction even sharper: being possessed by his insatiable hunger for power, Macbeth agrees on a crime, thus, knowingly dooming himself to destructive pangs of consciousness, madness, moral and physical destruction.
Verdi was enthralled by strength and passion of powerful characters, complex and conflicting situations, a combination of dramatism and sublime poetry, so typical of Shakespeare’s works. On no other opera, before or after Macbeth, did Verdi work so much, so scrupulously and so thoroughly.
Using his instinct as a musician and a dramatist, he personally wrote “a detailed prose version of the drama, showing the distribution of the acts, the scenes and the musical numbers”. Only after that he sends the complete synopsys to his librettist Francesco Maria Piave, accompanying it with a note: “Here is the draft of Macbeth. This tragedy is one of the greatest creations of man! … If we cannot make something great with it, let us at least try to do something out of the ordinary. The draft is clear: unconventional, simple, and short. I beg you to make the verses also short; the shorter they are the more effect you’ll make…not a superfluous word must they contain. Brevity and sublimity”.
Verdi got increasingly dissatisfied with Piave. Insistent demands interchanged with detailed instructions, instructions — with reproaches, reproaches turned into flair-ups of irritation and anger. And, at last, in January 1847 Verdi abruptly broke up with Piave — the future librettist of his Le Corsaire, Stiffelio, Rigoletto, La traviata, Simon Boccanegra, Aroldo, La forza del destino and the second version of Macbeth — and called on Andrea Maffei, another friend and distinguished Italian poet and writer, to revise and finish the libretto together. Such composer’s preoccupation with the text of Macbeth was not without a reason. Adequate adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy to music required overcoming the attitude to a word as to a subordinate element of opera, fully dependant on the development of a melodic line. In Macbeth a poetic word regains its dramatically effective meaning.
Naturally, Verdi could not use the text of the tragedy without making necessary alterations: many things were reduced or omitted. A number of scenes and characters disappeared, the characters opposing Macbeth — Malcolm and Macduff were simplified, and the character of King Duncan was present only perfunctorily. The most significant addition was introduction of a new chorus, of Scottish refugees, at the beginning of Act IV. This new emphasis on the theme of the liberation of a country under occupation couldn’t fail to receive a supportive response among Italian public, as it coincided with general patriotic sentiment prevalent in the country before the revolution of 1848-1849. Yet, for the first time in Verdi’s operatic experience, the anti-tyrannical motive receded into the background. The composer’s primary focus was on the fate of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.
It was the first time that Verdi had written an opera without a traditional love affair. Instead he explored gloomy solemnity of history, the greatness and significance of extraordinary personalities: Lady Macbeth’s passionateness, lust for power, willpower and resolution, Macbeth’s painful pathos, spiritual turmoil, consternation, as well as dramatism of feelings and evill associated with the struggle for power. It was in music, characterizing Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, that Verdi managed to translate original Shakespeare’s verses. Of special note in this respect is the scene of sleepwalking where the original text of the tragedy was only slightly abridged.
Still, it would be unfair to think of Macbeth only in terms of personal tragedy of the main characters. According to Verdi, there are “three main characters in the drama: Macbeth, Lady Macbeth and the Witches: The witches dominate the drama; everything derives from them — coarse and gossipy in the first act, sublime and prophetic in the third. They are truly a character, and a character of the utmost importance.” Instead of using there soloists — witches, the composer introduced three groups of chorus, considering that a powerful choral recitation would produce a necessary dramatic effect.
The next step was work with singers. For Macbeth, Verdi did not need virtuoso singers, who were reigning on the Italian operatic stage at that time. Trying to raise the genre of opera to the level of high tragedy, the composer set down new, unprecedented for Italian opera requirements to artists. Breaking all possible conventions, he put dramatic expressiveness and meaningfulness of performance before beautiful voice and singing skills.
In this respect, the choice of performers appears quite illustrative. Verdi wrote Macbeth for the baritone Felice Varesi and insisted upon him for the title role. The composer was even prepared to come into conflict with Lanari, as the impresario had already contracted another brilliant baritone — Gaetano Ferri. Trying to convince Lanari to reject Ferri, Verdi writes to him: “I don’t deny the merits of Ferri, who has a more handsome presence and a more beautiful voice, and, if you like, sings better, but not even he could create the effect in this role that Varesi would’. Similar ‘paradoxical” requirements Verdi applied to the performer of Lady Macbeth. He formulated them in 1848 in a detailed letter, protesting against the talented singer Eugenia Tadolini: “Tadolini looks beautiful and good, and I should like lady Macbeth to look ugly and evil. Tadolini sings to perfection, and I should like Lady Macbeth not to sing at all. Tadolini has a stupendous voice - clear, limpid, powerful: I should like in Lady Macbeth a voice rough, harsh and gloomy. Tadolini’s voice has angelic qualities: I should like the voice of Lady Macbeth to have something diabolic about it”. The composer intended this part for Marianna Barbieri-Nini, who, according to her contemporaries, had plain looks, but possessed a strong, expressive soprano and was a wonderful actress.
Then, Verdi literally bombarded performers with letters. In each letter, together with new fragments of their parts, he provided detailed instructions about his vision of characters “so great, so energetic, so original”, theirs vocal, and, most importantly, dramatic execution. Verdi involves himself closely in the work’s staging. He does not miss a single, even seemingly most insignificant, detail. He is concerned not only with the quality of execution of supporting roles, the number of chorus members, the composition and placement of the stage orchestra, but also decorations, costumes, mise en scenes, make-up, lightening, special effects. Verdi is frantically active: he has “eminent scholars do research about epoch and costumes”, writes to London to find out the way Macbeth is staged in Shakespeares’s homeland and orders there sketches for the costumes; consults prominent theatre designers about the use of a new magic lantern technique.
Disregarding singers’ caprices, Verdi sometimes openly resorted to pressure and continued rehearsing till the curtain was up. He wanted the level of the new production to be substantially different from what the audience and performers were used to. Macbeth premiered at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence on March 14, 1847. The first presentation received mixed responses, which according to various sources ranged from “got quite a cold receipt” to “had a triumphant success”. However, “a triumphant success” was supported by the fact that the opera was immediately staged at dozens of theatres in Italy and soon spread over to other countries. Ten years later its performance history included over two hundred productions: in 1849 opera was staged in Vienna, in 1850 - in New York and two years later in Stockholm, in 1854 Macbeth was heard in St Petersburg, and in 1860 the part of Lady Macbeth was performed by the virtuoso Polina Viardo in Manchester.
In March 1864, Verdi received an offer to stage the opera at Paris’ Théâtre Lyrique. Because it was traditional for all operas in Paris to include a ballet, Verdi began the revision of the scores and found them “either weak, or lacking in character, which is worse still.” This resulted in the creation of a new Paris version of the opera.
Revision of Macbeth was the greatest effort ever undertaken by Verdi in respect of any of his early works. Almost one third of the music to the opera was either revised or rewritten. The composer strove to enhance the dramatic expressiveness of the heroes’ musical characteristics. Thus, in the second version Lady Macbeth receives a new, more profound interpretation. She becomes the central character. Such reassessment was probably a result of impressions Verdi received at performances of the Shakespeare’s tragedy he had first seen in London in 1847. The Paris version of Macbeth was a moderate success. Verdi blamed the singers, critics associated the opera’s failure with the composer's poor knowledge and understanding of Shakespeare’s works. The composer was very indignant: “Oh, in this they are very wrong. It may be that I have not rendered Macbeth well, but that I don’t know, don’t understand, and don’t feel Shakespeare — no, by God, no. He is a favorite poet of mine, whom I have had in my hands from earliest youth, and whom I read and reread constantly”. The composer remained faithful to this love all his life. The list of Verdi’s Shakespeare-based operas, which Macbeth started, and which was continued by King Lear, are crowned by such acclaimed Verdi’s operatic masterpieces as Othello and Falstaff.
The stage history of Macbeth in the XX century features variety of productions staged by almost all leading opera companies around the world. Unfortunately, until recently Russian theatres were an exception. In 2001, which was designated by UNESCO the Year of Verdi, Macbeth was for the first time performed on stage of the Mariinsky Theatre.

Svetlana Kotlyarenko

全球首演:1847年3月14日,佛罗伦萨,佩哥拉剧院
马林斯基剧院首演:2001年4月18日,圣彼得堡,马林斯基剧院
马林斯基剧院滨海分院首演:2017年1月26日,符拉迪沃斯托克

演出时长:3小时15分钟 (含两次中场休息)

Age category: 16+
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