Camden Classical and Jazz | Bloch's Macbeth

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The Review - CLASSICAL & JAZZ
Published: 2 April 2009

Great British first for Bloch’s Thane

PREVIEW: BLOCH'S MACBETH
Bloomsbury Theatre

UNIVERSITY College Opera continue their admirable excavation of the archives and this time have come up with a real masterpiece – Ernest Bloch’s Macbeth.
The opera was written between 1905 and 1909, when Bloch was still in his twenties, to a French libretto by Edmond Fleg.
It was well received by the public and aroused great interest among music critics and writers on its first performance in Paris in 1910.
Yet it faded from view and had to wait until 1953 for further performances.
Bloch, by then living in America, had revised the work with an English text using much of Shakespeare’s original.
The UCO production is the first in this country. It is a work of thrilling power and they have done it proud.
Influences of Wagner, Debussy and Mussorgsky, can be detected, with extensive use of leitmotiv. But Bloch finds his own original voice, with tremendous choral ensembles and brilliant orchestral music, the tension building to devastating effect in the two finales.
The Macbeths are well sung by two charismatic and talented young professionals: George von Bergen and Katherine Rohrer.
John Ramster’s production sets the opera in time of the First World War, which gives added resonance in the second encounter with the witches.
It is a difficult score for an amateur orchestra and chorus to tackle and conductor Charles Peebles holds his disparate forces together admirably, giving more than adequate impression of the work’s riches.
HELEN LAWRENCE

* Wigmore Hall is marking the 50th anniversary of Bloch’s death with two chamber music concerts, on April 20 and July 15.

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