Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Austin Lyric Opera, January 13, 2005 


outstanding.  

I'd have to think harder than I usually do to come up with an ALO performance I enjoyed more than last Friday's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk . Just about every aspect of the production clicked into place, with stunning effect when coupled with an unfamiliar and compelling opera. The leads were uniformly outstanding with Brenda Harris and Tom Fox providing compelling voices and excellent acting skills. The orchestra created a vital dramatic character in Shoshtakovich's score. The staging was innovative without being heavy handed. Favorite moments include the Cop Rock police force number, Sergei's bribing of the guard while Katerina sings and the murder of Zinovy. The only real beef I have with the production was the fact is was sung in English. Hearing the English with supertitles is a distraction, not unlike an urge to find the button on the remote to turn off the closed captions. And I really wanted to hear the Russian.
The opera itself makes me want to research what surely must have been Russian in-jokes like the socialist confessing to the science behind finding the souls of frogs and the warning against eating mushrooms in the dark. Stuff to research.  

Posted: Sun - January 15, 2006 at 12:34 PM           |

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