Exceptional Singing within an Unexceptional Staging of Macbeth from Longborough Festival Opera

The operas of Guiseppe Verdi have had an intermittent presence at Longborough over the last twenty-eight years with only Falstaff, La Traviata and Rigoletto making the cut. Now, Macbeth – the composer’s first foray into Shakespeare – has been added to the honours board with a new production by internationally acclaimed Polish opera director Karolina Sofulak. With limited resources, she and set designer Kimie Nakano create all the essential atmosphere of brooding malevolence and superstition in their presentation. There’s nothing obviously Scottish here, but a twisted metal structure hints at Glamis Castle, and an empty grave both suggest deadly portents on an otherwise bare stage, itself conjuring the Bard’s blasted heath. Gloom and menace are neatly and simply achieved. Less effective is the use of puppets (hardly visible from the back of the auditorium) to create a sinister evocation of forthcoming events. Words from the witches foretell all we already know, so the puppets seem redundant. The decision to fill the stage with an augmented chorus and an extended coven of witches works well musically, but conditions are cramped and identifying exactly who is who amid a sea of characters is not always easy. While characterisation is still work in progress, this production benefits from some outstanding singers, chief of which is Ukrainian soprano Victoriia Balan as Lady Macbeth making her Longborough debut. She perfectly matches Verdi’s requirement for his femme fatale to have ‘the voice of a devil’. Ignoring the occasional weapons-grade tone in her upper range, she commands the stage and fearlessly dispatches Verdi’s formidable challenges, richly dark below the stave and scorching when delivering a high D flat in her ‘Una macchia è qui tuttora!’ Self-possessed, she bestrides the stage in a black leather coat giving faint hints of a dominatrix, her ‘Brindisi’ wonderfully rousing. Her subsequent mental breakdown in the sleep-walking scene doesn’t quite register as she’s mostly confined to the rear of the stage with unclear facial expressions. In the title role, Mark Stone – a regular at Longborough – sings with an assured Verdian legato, and while his accumulating guilt and torment is lightly sketched, his reluctance to embrace the ambitions of his wife comes across convincingly in his first duet with Lady Macbeth. Later, regret and disappointment are movingly portrayed in his closing ‘Pietà, rispetto, amore’. Amongst the supporting roles John Molloy seems more at home when appearing as a ghost, terrorising those on stage if not necessarily those of us out front. His partnership with Stone’s Macbeth is not entirely persuasive where neither has the nobility or swagger of heroes. As a remorseful Macduff, Jung Soo Yun brings off a marvellously sung ‘Ah, la paterna mano’ as he learns of the murder of his wife and children. But like Molloy, the director has done little to make him a character as well as a singer. Lesser roles are gratifyingly assumed with effective contributions from Rhydian Jenkins as Malcolm and Bernadette Johns as the Lady-in-Waiting. And not to be forgotten is Verdi’s assertion that the witches belong amongst the opera’s three principal roles. Here, the director augments the usual trio to nine singers garbed in various shades of terracotta. They enrich the sound splendidly, though their individualised movements, despite much vigour, are never going to freeze the blood or cause palpitations. Yet the advantage of extra voices pays dividends in Longborough’s chorus who, as assassins and Scots clansmen, thrillingly respond to Verdi’s music, with an ideal con slancio at Birnam Wood and in the closing victory chorus. Much credit too for Nil Venditti under whose baton the Longborough Festival Orchestra generates all the vital instrumental detail and dramatic sweep. From the Preludio’s dark premonitions, with its wriggling woodwind, through to the slaying of Macbeth, Venditti brings finely judged tempi and an acute ear for balance. Overall, this tragedy may not be chillingly supernatural but succeeds on the strength of the singing. David Truslove Macbeth Music: Guiseppe Verdi (1865 Paris revision) Libretto: Francesco Maria Piave & Andrea Maffei after the play by William Shakespeare. Sung in Italian with English surtitles. Cast and Production Staff: Macbeth – Mark Stone; Lady Macbeth – Victoriia Balan; Banquo – John Molloy; Macduff – Jung Soo Yun; Lady-in-Waiting – Bernadette Johns; Malcolm – Rhydian Jenkins; Doctor – Connor Baiano; Servant to Macbeth – Howang Yuen; Assassin – Fraser Robinson; Chorus of Witches; Longborough Youth Chorus; Longborough Community Chorus Director – Karolina Sofulak; Set & Costumes – Kimie Nakano; Lighting – Ben Ormerod; Conductor – Nil Venditti, Longborough Festival Orchestra Longborough Festival Opera, Moreton-in-Marsh, 7 July 2026 All photos © Matthew Williams-Ellis