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Opera

Macbeth

Stuart Maunder tackles Verdi
State Opera South Australia
by •
ABR Arts • 08 September 2023
Opera

Macbeth

Stuart Maunder tackles Verdi
State Opera South Australia
by •
ABR Arts • 08 September 2023
Macbeth (photograph by Tyr Liang).
Macbeth (photograph by Tyr Liang).

During his five years as artistic director of State Opera South Australia, Stuart Maunder steered the company out of bleak times to some moments of genuine glory with a number of theatrically strong if mostly smaller productions. Among them, Sweeney Todd and Turn of the Screw stood out for their psychological realism, but he will also be remembered for having revived Richard Meale’s Voss in a highly successful semi-staged version in 2022.

Maunder tended to concentrate his energies towards the lighter end of opera, notably with a Gilbert & Sullivan festival in May 2023. Nevertheless, everything he touched carried a stamp of theatrical brilliance. What came in shorter supply were mainstage productions of heavier classics of the operatic repertoire.

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Graham Strahle

Graham Strahle has a background in musicology and is as player of the viola da gamba. His interests shifted towards writing when he began reviewing concerts for The Australian in 1995. For many years he also wrote for The Adelaide Review and was senior writer at Music Australia from 2014 to 2021. These days he writes for ABR, InDaily’s arts section, InReview, and contributes now and then to teaching at the Elder Conservatorium of Music.

Leave a comment
Graham Strahle

Graham Strahle has a background in musicology and is as player of the viola da gamba. His interests shifted towards writing when he began reviewing concerts for The Australian in 1995. For many years he also wrote for The Adelaide Review and was senior writer at Music Australia from 2014 to 2021. These days he writes for ABR, InDaily’s arts section, InReview, and contributes now and then to teaching at the Elder Conservatorium of Music.

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Comment (1)

  • I found this production of Verdi’s Macbeth physically and vocally threadbare rather too often. The cliched set of immense pillars has been used countless times in film, dance, theatre and opera to convey power, oppression, and ominousness. But it’s a tired metaphor. Often the chorus scuttle on stage and off but with no apparent reason, except to add a bit of interest. Sadly, the first half was unconvincing. The second came to life with the wonderful voices and powerful presence of Macduff and Malcolm. This is not a production I found convincing for the most part: the menace emerged later, but, as Graham Strahle noted, a growling mezzo can convey more threat than Ladner’s trills.
    Posted by Denise Rosey
    15 September 2023

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