Macbeth (Bloch)

"Macbeth" is an opera in three acts, with music by Ernest Bloch to a libretto by Edmond Fleg, after the eponymous play of William Shakespeare. Bloch composed the opera between 1904 and 1906, but it did not receive its first performance until November 30, 1910 by the Opéra-Comique Paris. Alex Cohen has written of quarrels within the cast that contributed to the opera's poorly received premiere. After the premiere, the opera was performed 15 times through January 1911, but then was withdrawn. [Cohen, Alex, "Ernest Bloch's "Macbeth" (April 1938). "Music & Letters", 19 (2): pp. 143-148.] Romain Rolland had studied the score and communicated his admiration to Bloch in June 1911. [Brody, Elaine, "Romain Rolland and Ernest Bloch" (January 1982). "The Musical Quarterly", 68 (1): pp. 60-79.]

Guido Gatti has compared elements of Bloch's opera to the music of Mussorgsky. [Gatti, Guido M. (translated by Theodore Baker), "Ernest Bloch" (January 1921). "The Musical Quarterly", 7 (1): pp. 20-38.] He has also written of the different treatments of the Macbeth story by Giuseppe Verdi and Bloch in their respective operas on the subject, with Verdi being more "realistic" and Bloch being more in keeping with the symbolist era in art at his time. [Gatti, Guido M. (translated by Theodore Baker), "Two "Macbeths": Verdi-Bloch" (January 1926). "The Musical Quarterly", 12 (1): pp. 22-31.]

After the premiere production, the opera was staged in 1938 in Naples, but was then banned on orders of the Fascist government. Subsequently, the opera was produced in Rome in 1953, and in Trieste. [Chapman, Ernest, "Ernest Bloch at 75" (Spring 1955). "Tempo" (New Ser.), 35: pp. 6-9, 11-12.] Portions of the opera have been recorded with Heinz Rehfuss and Lucienne Devallier, with Ernest Ansermet conducting, and in another recording, with Inge Borkh. More recently, a complete recording conducted by Friedemann Layer has been produced.cite journal | url=http://oq.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/17/2/340 | last=Fregosi | first=William | title="Macbeth". Ernest Bloch | journal=The Opera Quarterly | volume=17 | issue=2 | pages=340–342 | date=2001 | accessdate=2007-09-26 | doi=10.1093/oq/17.2.340]

Roles

*Banquo, tenor
*Duncan, tenor
*Lady Macbeth, mezzo-soprano
*Porter, baritone
*Lennox, baritone
*Macbeth, baritone
*Macduff, bass

ynopsis

The story is essentially that of the Shakespeare play, with the play's five acts compressed to three. The opera contains seven "tableaux", with the prelude comprising the first tableau, and each of the three acts containing two tableaux.

Recording

* Musicales Actes Sud OMA34100: Jean-Philippe Lafont, Markella Hatzian, Jean-Philippe Marlière, Jacque Trussel, Christer Bladin, Philippe Georges, Marcel Vanaud, Sophie Fournier, Hanna Schaer, Ariane Stamboulides, Wojtek Smilek, Annie Varville, Franck Bard, Ferijs Millers, Andris Gailis; Orchestre Philharmonique de Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon; Choeur de la Radio lettone; Friedemann Layer, conductor

References

External links

[http://www.jmi.org.uk/suppressedmusic/newsletter/reviews/cd_ernestbloch.html Steve Schwartz, ICSM Online Journal, "Ernest Bloch's "Macbeth", 13 November 2005]