Conductor Daniele Rustioni and Anna Pirozzi’s Lady Macbeth are dominant forces in a musically strong revival of Verdi’s Shakespearean opera
“Lyon Opera principal conductor Rustioni participated in Covent Garden’s young artists’ programme in 2008/9. A relatively rare, but welcome visitor to the house since, he is now mooted as a possible successor to Antonio Pappano when he steps down as the Royal Opera’s music director in 2024.
This Macbeth, with its consistent sense of dramatic momentum, will surely work in Rustioni’s favour. The rhythms are athletically sprung, the instrumental colours evocatively and precisely shaded (the orchestra is in sovereign and highly responsive form), and an ideal balance is struck between rigour and flexibility – not least in the mighty ensembles that close both Act I and Act II.”
The Stage, Yehuda Shapiro