From around the world: Sarasota. (North America).(Sarasota Opera presents Verdi's Macbeth)(Opera Review)

Sarasota Opera, under artistic director Victor DeRenzi, has made a name for itself by exploring Verdi's operas; a cycle, begun in 1989, is underway, due for completion in 2013. The company has staged such works as the U.S. premiere of the French-language Les Vepres Siciliennes and contrasted the original and revised versions of Simon Boccanegra and La Forza del Destino. The company's 2003 season focused on both versions of Macbeth, which had its premiere in Florence in 1847; Verdi rewrote it for Paris in 1865.

The latter Macbeth, which became the standard version (though often without its ballet), opened the Sarasota season in early February and was performed in repertory. At the end of the two-month season, the same cast shifted gears for a rare production of the original score (seen March 28). It was fascinating to compare the two versions. To be sure, the revival of the 1847 Macbeth would be of most interest to Verdi scholars, but the Sarasota project was more than an academic exercise. Verdi knew what he was doing the first time around, and his original version is not necessarily inferior. Because he rewrote as much as one-third of the opera with French tastes in mind, the revision can be faulted for inconsistency.

The 1847 score has a unity of style that communicates more urgency, if less sophistication. Lacking the ballet, which takes up nine minutes, and some other elements (notably Lady Macbeth's "La luce langue," written for Paris), the original is some fifteen minutes shorter than the revision. A plus is that Macbeth dies onstage, in a swordfight with Macduff, and his death aria ("Mal per me che m'affidai") provides satisfying closure. (In the revision, Macbeth dies offstage, and the opera ends with a patriotic chorus.) No wonder some directors interpolate the onstage death scene into the standard version. Lady Macbeth benefits most from the rewrite. "La luce langue" is much superior to her original aria and provides a crucial dramatic bridge between her two other key scenes, the Act I duet with Macbeth after Duncan's murder and her ...