Verdi: Macbeth Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		2.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		2.5

Verdi: Macbeth Blu-ray Movie Review

The Scottish Opera.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 29, 2013

There’s a longstanding tradition in the theater that the name Macbeth must never be spoken, and the Shakespeare classic is therefore referred to as The Scottish Play. Theatrical superstition may not have any salient taboos about opera, so maybe it’s okay to sing the forbidden name, but Giuseppe Verdi was still taking something of a risk in musicalizing one of Shakespeare’s most legendary plays. Though the tragic element of Macbeth would certainly be nothing new for the world of opera, the absence of any real love story would seem to rob a potential opera of what operatic tragedy is typically built around. Verdi perhaps intuitively understood this, for he returned to his original conception and rather radically reworked it, with a revised version debuting decades after the original version premiered.

Another legendary Shakespeare tragedy tells us “the play’s the thing”, and director Liliana Cavani seems to be taking that approach in this Macbeth, by having the actual drama play out center stage, while members of the ensemble appear to be watching from the veritable “wings” (which are actually on stage). The best part of this production is undoubtedly the impressive singing of Leo Nucci in the title role. He brings a fierceness that makes Macbeth’s ambition obvious, but which also doesn’t shirk from the character’s more tragic tendencies. Sylvie Valayre is also a standout as Lady Macbeth, bringing the character's scheming treachery fully to life.

Verdi: Macbeth Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Macbeth is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of C Major and Unitel Classica with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. Opera fans will probably no doubt recognize that this is a re-release of the old TDK DVD from 2007 and its transition to high definition has not been at all for the better. This is in fact one of the most spectacularly ugly upconversions I've personally encountered, with often fuzzy imagery and absolutely ubiquitous ringing around all sorts of objects, living and inanimate. Close-ups fare at least a little better, but even those do not pop with the sort of abundant fine detail that most aficionados of high definition live performances demand from their Blu-rays. To be entirely fair, things look considerably better in motion than some of these screenshots might indicate, but this is still pretty disappointing from a purely visual standpoint.

Verdi: Macbeth Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Macbeth offers both DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 mixes and they both sound beautifully full bodied, certainly head and shoulders over the image quality of this disc. The orchestra is well balanced and never overpowers the singers. Fidelity is excellent and dynamic range is fairly wide.

Verdi: Macbeth Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Introduction to Macbeth (1080i; 10:48). C Major and Unitel Classica have been standardizing most of their Tutto Verdi releases with these informative little introductions to the various operas. Is there some hidden subtext in the fact that Verdi dedicated Macbeth, a story of extreme family dysfunction, to his father-in-law? Probably not, since Verdi thought Macbeth was one of his crowning achievements, which didn't keep him from heavily revising the piece through the years.