맥베스

4막의 오페라
이탈리아어로 상연됩니다
(러시아어와 영어 자막 지원)

Credits

작곡: 주세페 베르디
윌리엄 셰익스피어의 비극을 바탕으로 한 극본: 프란체스코 마리아 피아베

음악 감독: 발레리 게르기예프
무대 감독: 데비드 마퀴카르
예술 감독: 타냐 막갈린
조명 디자이너: 데비드 칸닝햄
수석 반주자: 올가 크루코비치, 마리나 레피나
수석 지휘자: 라리사 쉐이코프스카야
지휘자: 안나 피피야
보조 감독: 안나 시시키나

SYNOPSIS

오페라 이야기는 스코틀랜드, 그리고 스코틀랜드와 영국의 국경에서 일어난다.

제1막
T어두운 밤에 마녀들은 마법을 걸고 요술울 부리고 노래하고 있다. 맥베스의 도착을 알려주는 드럼 소리가 울리며 흑마법의 춤과 노래를 방해한다. 덩컨 왕을 섬기는 두 장군 맥베스와 뱅코는 등장한다. 마녀들은 맥베스를 글래미스의 영주, 코도의 영주, 스코틀랜드의 왕이라고 부르고, 뱅코를 장차 왕들의 조상이라고 부르면서 예언을 한다. 나타난 사자들은 전쟁에서의 승리한 맥베스를 이제 코도의 영주라고 부르라는 덩컨 왕의 명령을 전한다. 이와 같이 첫 번째 예언이 이루어진다. 왕위 계승에 대한 맥베스의 생각은 뱅코를 걱정하게 한다.

레이디 맥베스는 마녀들의 예언에 대한 맥베스의 편지를 읽는다. 그녀는 남편이 왕위를 차지할 수 있도록 최선을 하기로 결심힌다. 레이디 맥베스는 덩컨 왕과 맥베스가 성으로 오고 있다는 소식을 듣고 악의 세력의 도움을 요청한다. 맥베스가 돌아온다. 레이디 맥베스는 남편에게 덩컨을 죽이라고 설득한다. 맥베스는 단검의 환상을 보게 되고 마침내 권력을 위해 범죄를 저지르려고 한다. 그러나 범죄를 범한 맥베스는 격렬한 양심의 가책으로 괴로워한다. 레이디 맥베스는 남편의 약한 마음을 질책한다. 그녀는 잠들어 있는 경비에게 피를 묻히고 그들에게 살인 혐의를 던질 수 있도록 왕의 집에 가려고 한다. 손이 피로 얼룩져 있는 레이디 맥베스는 남편에게 돌아가고, 남편은 범한 죄에 대한 양심의 가책을 느낀다.

맥더프와 뱅코가 나타난다. 맥더프가 왕을 깨우러 떠날 때, 뱅코는 이 밤의 끔찍한 징조에 대해 생각하게 된다. 맥더프는 죽어 있는 덩컨 왕의 발견하고 있는 모두를 깨운다. 몰려든 사람들은 왕을 죽인 자에 대한 복수를 맹세한다.

제2막
맥베스는 스코틀랜드의 왕이 되고, 아버지의 죽음으로 고소를 당한 덩컨의 아들 맬컴은 영국에 숨게 된다. 마녀들의 예언에 따르면, 뱅코는 왕의 조상이다. 따라서 맥베스와 그의 레이디 맥베스는 이제 뱅코와 그의 아들들을 죽이려고 한다. 레이디 맥베스는 숙명에 대한 승리를 예감하고 기뻐한다.

맥베스가 고용한 살인자들은 왕궁 근처의 어두운 공원에서 뱅코를 숨어서 기다리고 있다. 뱅코는 아들 플린스와 함께 나타난다. 뱅코가 느끼는 안 좋은 예감은 즉각 이뤄진다. 뱅코가 살해되지만, 아들은 도망친다.

맥베스는 부인과 함께 손님들을 잔치에 초대한다. 레이디 맥베스는 건배를 제의한다. 뱅코의 살인자 한 명이 나타나고 공원에서 무슨 일이 일어났는지 맥베스에게 알려준다. 맥베스는 손님 앞에서 뱅코가 없는 이유를 모르는 척하지만, 이때 뱅코의 혼령이 나타나 맥베스의 자리에 앉는다. 레이디 맥베스는 남편과 불안한 손님을 진정시키고 있다. 혼령이 다시 나타날 때 그녀는 정신을 잃은 남편을 더 이상 진정시키지 못한다. 스코틀랜드의 귀족들은 나라를 다스리는 사람들이 범죄자라고 우려를 표명하고, 맥더프는 유배자들과 떠나기로 한다.

제3막
폭풍우가 치는 밤에 마녀들은 악령을 고안하며 마법의 물약을 끓인다. 맥베스는 나타나고 자신의 운명을 이야기해 달라고 한다. 맥더프를 조심하라는 예언을 하고 여자가 낳은 자를 두려워할 일이 없고, 비르남 숲이 성으로 오기 전엔 맥베스가 망하지 않는다는 예언을 남긴다. 그 다음에 맥베스를 지나 행진하는 여덟 왕들과 거울을 들고 그들을 따라가는 뱅코의 환상이 펼쳐진다. 공포에 빠진 맥베스는 이 왕들이 뱅코의 자손들인 것을 깨닫고 정신을 잃는다. 마녀들은 맥베스를 둘러싸 춤을 추고 사라진다. 정신을 차린 맥베스는 맥더프와 그의 가족을 파괴하겠다고 맹세한다.

제4막
스코틀랜드 유배자들은 억압 받는 고국과 불행한 사람들의 고통에 대해 불평한다. 맥더프는 아내와 아이들의 살인에 대해 고통스러워한다. 영국군을 이끄는 맬컴이 나타나고 맥더프에게 위안을 찾기 위해 복수하자고 한다. 맬컴은 나뭇가지를 덮개로 사용하고 맥베스를 함께 공격하기 위해 스코틀랜드인들을 모은다.

레이디 맥베스는 몽유병에 시달리다 결국 숨을 거둔다. 절망에 빠진 맥베스는 군대의 도착을 기다리면서 자기의 파괴의 불가피함에 대해 생각한다. 완전히 기운을 잃은 맥베스는 아내의 죽음에 대한 소식을 무관심하게 받아들이다. 군인들이 비르남 숲이 다가온다고 알릴 때, 맥베스는 마녀들의 예언을 회상한다.

이제 다른 두 가지 예언이 이뤄진다. 비르남 숲이 움직인 것은 바로 나뭇가지로 덮은 영국군인들이다. 맥더프가 추적하는 맥베스는 나타난다. 맥더프는 자신이 여자에게서 태어난 것이 아니라 어미의 배를 가르고 나온 자라고 말한다. 둘이 싸우게 되고, 맥베스는 맥더프이 검에 의해 죽는다. 이후 던컨 왕의 첫째 아들인 맬컴이 왕위에 오른다.

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

세계 초연: 1847년 3월 14일, Teatro della Pergola, 플로렌스 
초연: 2001년 4월 18일, 마린스키 극장, 상트페테르부르크
마린스키 극장 연해주 무대 초연: 2017년1월 26일, 블라디보스토크

소요시간: 3 시간 15분
공연은 2번의 휴식시간을 포함합니다

Age category: 16+
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