Something wicked this way hums. A wild and sumptuous new production of Verdi’s Macbeth brought out a bevy of stars and patrons on Tuesday evening, ready to celebrate the opening night of the Metropolitan Opera’s 141st season.
During pre-show cocktails in the Grand Tier Bar, Sigourney Weaver chatted with Frances McDormand as Katie Holmes arrived with her artist beau, Jason Bard Yarmosky. Gina Gershon, Julianna Margulies, Ellen Burstyn, Josh Lucas, Edmund Donovan, and Juliana Canfield—in vintage Tom Ford-era Yves Saint Laurent—were also amongst the 700 guests who filed into the packed house.
After a particularly melodious rendition of the national anthem—count on the Met audience to go full voice—the curtain soon rose on the Scottish Highlands. In this Louisa Proske-directed production, which opens with a jaw-dropping fight scene where sparks literally fly, the baritone Quinn Kelsey stars as the titular Scot, with powerhouse soprano Lise Davidsen by his side as the infamously scheming Lady Macbeth.
An early Verdi work based on the Shakespeare play, it is the story of the doomed Scottish nobleman, driven by a witch’s prophecy and his wife’s ruthless ambition to murder the king and take the throne. Over the course of five acts and Verdi’s moody score, Macbeth is ravaged by guilt and paranoia, though he continues to kill to preserve his ill-gotten crown before ultimately being vanquished by his countrymen’s rebel army.
“It is the story of corruption and of a couple that lets evil into their lives and unleashes and blows through all the guardrails. We’re dealing with a world of autocrats and a world of tyrants,” Proske told Vogue, post-show.
As guests gathered for dinner at David Geffen Hall, floral tapestries and otherworldly décor by David Stark Design gave the gala feast the right amount of baronial flair. As attendees, including Ariana DeBose and Patricia Clarkson, tucked into sweet Forelle pears and a main course of Branzino, the atmosphere was decidedly more serene than the savagery witnessed earlier on stage. Raves for Montana Levi Blanco’s lush costumes in the courtly, Elizabethan style could be overheard around the table, and rightfully so; their opulence and sick glamour struck the perfect note for the depravity of the piece’s villainous couple.
“My instinct was to not set it in the historic period of the real Macbeth, but in the time of Shakespeare,” said Proske. “Those clothes speak so beautifully about power and status and the kind of Elizabethan power suit that women, especially, had. People go to the Met and they want to be astonished and see beautiful, lavish things. I wanted to give them that, without being old-fashioned. I think you can do that and still make it political or make it very human, even transgressive. I wanted that idea of grand opera—because I think we crave that at the moment.”
Giving audiences what they want is a pendulum swing for the Met season opener. For the past few seasons, the opening piece has been a contemporary, newer work that favored challenging the audience rather than contenting them, with mixed results. Not to say that Macbeth is pandering; but this big, sweeping production with all of the fixings is a solid kick-off to the calendar. Perhaps the company is saving its fall experiment for October, when the Met debuts Lincoln in the Bardo, by Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek, based on the George Saunders novel.
There are few tales as timeworn as the tragedy of Macbeth, but its relevance to the current moment is as unmistakable as a bloody dagger; ruthless ambition, violent power grabs, and even stubborn stain removal: Davidsen’s “Out, damned spot!” sleepwalking aria “Una macchia è qui tuttora” is worth the price of admission alone.
“This production of Verdi’s Macbeth is meant to be timely,” said Peter Gelb, the Met Opera’s general manager, at the dinner’s opening remarks. “But that does not suggest any similarities to the autocrats of today…after all, Macbeth had a guilty conscience.”
