It was these two supporting characters who stood out Friday night as the Metropolitan Opera assembled an entirely new cast for the season's last three performances of Verdi's "Macbeth."
As Banquo, Macbeth's comrade in arms who falls early victim to his murderous rampage, the German bass Rene Pape dominated the early scenes. His beautiful tone, seamless throughout his range but especially impressive in its upper reaches, always commands attention, as does his deep commitment to character. From his first entrance, he makes Banquo's wariness of the witches' prophesies - and of Macbeth - apparent, and his one aria, "Come dal ciel precipita," grimly foreshadows his murder at the hand of Macbeth's hired thugs.
In the second half of the evening, the nobleman Macduff, who until this point has mostly been an observer, mourns the slaying of his wife and children in a lyrical aria, "Ah, la paterna mano." This solo provided a golden opportunity for Joseph Calleja, a young tenor from Malta, to impress the audience with his large, warm and well-focused voice. Calleja, whose previous Met appearances have been as the Duke in Verdi's "Rigoletto," drew the evening's biggest applause and made one eager to hear him in more roles.
The leading roles of Macbeth and his Lady, meanwhile, were in the hands of singers who discharged their duties honorably without making a particularly vivid impression.
Hasmik Papian, an Armenian soprano, has potent high notes in her favor (though her final D flat in the sleepwalking scene sounded forced) and the technique to toss off her drinking song with elan. But she is weak in the lower chest register, where so much of Lady Macbeth's early music lies.
As her husband, Spanish baritone Carlos Alvarez is something of a puzzle. His basic sound is attractive, if a size too small for an ideal Verdi singer. But he never quite grabs hold of the role or the audience.
With such an imbalance in the casting, the focus of much of the evening fell on the superb work by the chorus, the grimly effective - and sometimes darkly amusing - production by Adrian Noble and the sympathetic conducting of James Levine in the pit.
