Raw ambition and operatic fury: Atlanta Opera delivers a gripping ‘Macbeth’

PERFORMANCE REVIEW:

The Atlanta Opera
March 1, 4, 7 & 9, 2025
Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre
Atlanta, Georgia – USA
Giuseppe VERDI: Macbeth
Iván López-Reynoso, conductor; Tomer Zvulun, production director; Gregory Luis Boyle, staging director; Giuseppe Verdi, composer; Francesco Maria Piave & Andrea Maffei, librettists. Cast: Michael Mayes (Macbeth), Sara Gartland (Lady Macbeth), Morris Robinson (Banquo), Won Whi Choi (Macduff), Aubrey Odle* (Lady in Waiting), Demetrious Sampson, Jr. (Malcolm), Luke Harnish (Doctor), Jason Zacher* (1st Apparition–Warrior), Amanda Sheriff* (2nd Apparition–Bloody Child), Hensley Peters (3rd Apparition–A Crowned Child); Atlanta Opera Chorus; Atlanta Opera Orchestra. Creative: Ran Arthur Braun, live action designer; Steven Kemp, scenic designer; Robert Israel, costume designer; Driscoll Otto, lighting & projection designer; Melanie Steele, wig & makeup designer; Rolando Salazar, assistant conductor & chorus master; Elio Bucky*, assistant director. (* = Studio Artist)

Mark Gresham | 5 MAR 2024

The Atlanta Opera opened its production of Giuseppe Verdi’s Macbeth on Saturday night at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, delivering a performance marked by its stark visual aesthetic and dramatic intensity.

This Macbeth trades Shakespeare’s complex musings for raw, operatic force—a tyrant’s fall, a queen’s ruin, unfolding as a psychological descent of characters ensnared by power, catalyzed by the supernatural.

Baritone Michael Mayes led the cast in the title role, crafting a Scottish king stripped of remorse—a tyrant whose ambition burns cold and unrelenting, a sharp pivot from Shakespeare’s brooding antihero. Mayes’ Macbeth is a despot unraveling through “flashes of visions,” hinting at a paranoid psychosis born of murder’s trauma and the witches’ riddles. His mind conjures threats, not regrets.

Opposite him, soprano Sara Gartland embodied Lady Macbeth, a steely manipulator, her own ambition for power driving Macbeth to slay King Duncan; her narcissistic will forging their loveless alliance until she fractures into a sleepwalking shadow, haunted by her own deeds. Together, they spiral downward—one into paranoid visions, the other into hysteria.

Morris Robinson as Banquo, the honorable warrior, casts a long shadow. His murder at Macbeth’s command spawns the ghost that shatters the banquet scene, a spectral echo of lost integrity and a prophecy of royal heirs that gnaws at the tyrant’s fears. Robinson brought sonorous depth to Banquo, his bass voice resonating with power and gravitas.

A ghostly Banquo (Morris Robinson, far left) appears at the banquet, prompting the paranoid Macbeth (Michael Mayes) to hide under the table. (credit: Raftermen)

Macduff, the grieving avenger, rises with a heart-wrenching lament for his butchered family, striking Macbeth down in a climactic duel. Tenor Won Whi Choi’s Macduff delivered a poignant rendition of “Ah, la paterna mano.”

The trusting reign of Duncan (David Silverstein) ends in a murder that ignites the tragedy. Ultimately, Malcolm, Duncan’s son (Demetrious Sampson, Jr.), reclaims the throne amid a triumphant chorus.

Verdi’s chorus of witches propels it all. They weave fate with eerie prophecies, sparking Macbeth’s chaos and Lady Macbeth’s schemes. Murderers, refugees, and courtiers join the fray—the chorus wails Scotland’s ruin in “Patria oppressa” and cheers its rebirth in the end. They’re Verdi’s backbone to the story, fusing personal collapse with national stakes. The Atlanta Opera Chorus, under the direction of Rolando Salazar, provided a compelling presence enhanced by Ran Arthur Braun’s stylized live-action design elements for combat.

Conductor Iván López-Reynoso guided the Atlanta Opera Orchestra through Verdi’s score with a balance of urgency and lyrical finesse.

Tomer Zvulun’s production, with staging by Gregory Luis Boyle, leaned into the opera’s dark themes, with action well-supported by Steven Kemp’s set. Driscoll Otto’s lighting and projection design significantly shaped the production’s mood, using stark contrasts and shadow to underscore the story’s descent into madness, intensified by Felipe Barral’s video media, which at times took on the character of worn and scratched old celluloid to imply Macbeth’s deteriorating mental state. Costumes by Robert Israel evoked a mid-19th-century aesthetic and setting, especially the style of military uniforms.

The production embraced Verdi’s dramatic sweep, and its overall impact was cohesive, underscoring the opera’s themes of relentless personal ambition and fate. ■

The Atlanta Opera continues its productio of Verdi’s ‘Macbeth’ with two final performances on March 7 & 9, 2025, at Cobb Energy Centre.

About the author:

Mark Gresham is publisher and principal writer of EarRelevant. He began writing as a music journalist over 30 years ago, but has been a composer of music much longer than that. He was the winner of an ASCAP/Deems Taylor Award for music journalism in 2003.

Read more by Mark Gresham.