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A Sentimental Journey
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The action and direction are superb and the acting good, but the plot is so pathetic it defies belief
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London,
Fiona Maddocks's rating
Reader rating
Dir: Richard Jones.
Cast: Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Vladimir Jurowski (cond), Damian Iorio (cond, Jun 6, 9, 15), Ultz (des), London Philharmonic Orchestra, The Glyndebourne Chorus, Sylvie Valayre (Lady Macbeth), Andrzej Dobber (Macbeth), Stanislav Shvets (Banquo), Peter Auty (Macduff), Svetlana Sozdateleva (Lady Macbeth's lady-in-waiting)
Description: Verdi's compelling reading of Shakespeare's meditation on death, destiny and power, directed by Richard Jones and conducted by Vladimir Jurowski with Andrzej Dobber in the title role and Sylvie Valayre as Lady Macbeth. Sung in Italian with English supertitles.
Trains: BR: Lewes 
Phone: 01273813813
Website: www.glyndebourne.com
Modern twist: The witches in caravans confront Banquo (Stanislav Shvets and Macbeth (Andrzej Dobber)
Three caravans in a grim wasteland, three generations of pram-face witches hissing oaths out of flip-up windows, Glyndebourne's new Macbeth establishes its bold credentials within minutes. They are not pretty. This is a world of D-I-Y Scots baronial, with flatpack shed and a dismal anarchy of offthepeg tartan. Lady Macbeth dons rubber gloves in a dungeon laundrette and Banquo's ghost oozes, all too fleshily, from a cardboard box.
Rumours of Richard Jones's bloodspattered staging, designed by Ultz, had oozed similarly from closed rehearsal rooms for months, adding high anxiety to Glyndebourne's usual new season buzz. How would the patrons stomach it? The actuality, as so often with this director, proved intelligent and searing rather than shocking. It may not be vintage Jones quite yet, slightly muted by first-night nerves among the singers, but this is a startling, imaginative evening and, under the incisive baton of Vladimir Jurowski, musically invigorating. The London Philharmonic, complete with cimbasso, Verdi's odd sort of low trombone, played with edge and intensity. A large, well-choreographed chorus excelled.
Jones and Jurowski have used the 1865 revision, which, with added ballet and choruses, is dramatically looser than the familiar early version. Their approach, emphasising public power rather than private psychodrama, draws on a range of contemporary imagery. Lady Macbeth, a Hillary Clinton lookalikeis clever and calculating, fairly sane until her sleepwalking scene.
Banquo (Stanislav Shvets) strangely resembles Gordon Brown. Macduff 's slaughtered children, their bodies wheeled on in white shrouds, reminds us of any terrorist atrocity. As the angry, grieving father, Peter Auty was superb.
In the title role Polish baritone Andrzej Dobber, golden-toned once he relaxed, plays Macbeth as a fretful, troubled figure, lost in a fog of catastrophe. Sylvie Valayre's Lady Macbeth, despite coloratura brilliance, suffered intonation problems, but the warm reception she received for her house debut will doubtless build confidence.
Some of Ultz's visual tics, such as the yellow smiley face or the 666 mark of the beast from the Book of Revelation, felt superfluous. Yet this Macbeth is a robust affair and if some of the audience clearly hated it, the cheers were vigorous and wholehearted in support. To go to Glyndebourne assuming familiarity is to head to the wrong place. It was here, after all, that Macbeth was given its UK professional premiere seven decades ago. The Sussex festival still lives dangerously.
• Festival until 26 August (www.glyndebourne.com).
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
Perhaps the worst visual production I have ever seen at Glyndebourne. Jones and his team hopeless dreaming sixth formers - remember their names and see their work at your peril - they should be banished to their land of polystyrene. Change your tickets now. Anyone who thinks this is any good has no imagination. Dismal, 1 star for the the embattled orchestra and Peter Auty, don't work these people again they will ruin you.
- R.H.W.Meaker, London
How indeed will the Glyndebourne patrons react? Judging by the old boy sitting next to me - not that well! I haven't heard so much tutting, sighing and noisy examination of a wrist-watch since Don Giovanni! Frankly - Jone's production is genius. What else do you do with the paper thin plot, one dimensional characters and cheery oom-pah score of the original opera. Finally a production that makes sense of it all. The leads are (with the small exception of Lady MacBeth, who didn't quite get it together) exceptional and Jurowski sure knows how to work his orchestra. A classic in the making.
- Macco Jacco, Barnet UK
