Despite pandemic, famed Italian theater opens season

While many European theaters remain closed due to the pandemic, the famed Teatro alla Scala on Dec. 7 opened its new season with the gala premiere of Verdi's "Macbeth" to a fully seated house.

Despite the glittery evening wear and a guest list that included Giorgio Armani and Italy's president, Sergio Mattarella, the mood was more restrained than usual for the event that is considered a highlight of the European cultural calendar.

The appreciative crowd showered flowers from the tiered balconies on stars baritone Luca Salsi who sang the title role and Russian soprano Anna Netrebko as the conniving Lady Macbeth.

But there were mixed reviews from La Scala's strictly traditionalist upper tiers for the modern staging by Davide Livermore, who received a smattering of boos in the 11-minutes of curtain calls for the entire cast and orchestra.

"Macbeth" completed music director Riccardo Chailly's trilogy of young Verdi opera's after "Giovanna d'Arca" in 2015 and "Attila" in 2018.

Livermore, in his fourth consecutive La Scala premiere, set the Shakespearean tragedy in a contemporary city of skyscrapers, with video images projecting a dystopian fate as it falls to Macbeth's tyranny. The staging was a complex choreography weaving together the chorus and a mime troupe in largely horizontal movements, while the stars were conveyed on and off the stage vertically, often in a gilded elevator.

Netrebko, who stunned with a dreamlike ballet performance in the third act, was the first to defend the staging.

"I think this production is absolutely amazing, stunning, modern, new," she said. "It's a new world in the opera and we love it," she said.

Both she and Salsi said they saw the modern interpretation as the future of opera.<...