Photo : © La Monnaie / De Munt
Macbeth Underworld, Pascal Dusapin' opera, french premiere on November 6, 8, 10, 12, 2023 at Opéra Comique in Paris.
“These two spell trouble, aberration, violence, total chaos. They no longer know what they have done, but they had to do it. Everything happens as though they need to repeat or replay it. It is stronger than them – even together. They confound everything: appearances, reality, before, after. They hear voices. They no longer know what is happening. Something other than themselves is passing through them. Their vision is clouded. Her – she wanted to kill the king, that good king. She violates everything that passes by. She understands nothing of herself. It’s all a mass of confusion. She inverts all things, and it’s the other who kills the king because he believes he wants that, too. In the end, he comes to his senses. But it’s too late. It’s done. The permanence of the story of these two has not ceased to afflict our own time. It is as alarming as it is current. It is a matter of concern and, at the same time, a metaphor – and vice versa. Through song, the opera voices what preoccupies us all.”
Pascal Dusapin
Just four years after the premiere of his Penthesilea, Pascal Dusapin has come up with a new opera, commissioned by La Monnaie. Together with his librettist Frédéric Boyer, he delves into the darkest regions of the human soul, this time via iconic symbols of evil in humankind: Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. The young French director Thomas Jolly who is familiar with Shakespeare’s world will direct, while conductor Alain Altinoglu does justice to the intense drama and the vocal and orchestral richness of the score. The result is a bloodstained gothic opera, in which the ill-fated couple is condemned to relive its own tragedy, haunting their memory and ours.
Source : La Monnaie / De Munt
Information
The Opera Macbeth Underworld won the prestigious prize of best world premiere by Oper! Awards.
More information here
Pascal Dusapin - Macbeth Underworld
opera
German premiere : 18 April 2021 - Saarländisches Staatstheater GmbH
Luxembourgish premiere : 12 May 2021 - Grand Théâtre de la Ville de Luxembourg
Peter Schöne, Macbeth
Dshamilija Kaiser, Lady Macbeth
Markus Jaursch, Ghost
Marie Smolka, Child
Maria Cara Pino Cury, Weird sister
Valda Wilson, Weird sister
Carmen Seibel, Weird sister
Algirdas Drevinskas, Porter
Stefan Neubert, conductor
Lorenzo Fioroni, staging
October 10, 14, 23, 29 & November 10, 2021 - Saarländisches Staatstheater GmbH
Dshamilja Kaiser, Lady Macbeth
Maria Carla Pino Cury, Weird Sister I
Valda Wilson, Weird Sister II
Carmen Seibel & Melissa Zgouridi, Weird Sister III
Bettina Maria Bauer, Child
Hiroshi Matsui, Ghost
Algirdas Drevinskas, Porter
Justus Thorau, conductor
Lorenzo Fioroni, stagging
Paul Zoller, sets
Upcoming dates :
French premiere: November 6, 8, 10, 12, 2023 - Opéra Comique (Paris)
Orchestre de l’Opéra national de Lyon
Chœur Accentus
Avec Katarina Bradić
Jarrett Ott
Maria Carla Pino Cury
Mélanie Boisvert
Melissa Zgouridi
Hiroshi Matsui
John Graham Hall
Rachel Masclet
Franck Ollu, conductor
Thomas Jolly, stagging
See the rehearsals of the new production in Saarbrücken:
See the videos we released for the world premiere of the work on 20 september 2019 at Théâtre de la Monnaie in Bruxelles :
