Opera review: The Okavango Macbeth

Published on Thursday 21 April 2011 19:55

THE OKAVANGO MACBETH QUEEN'S HALL, EDINBURGH *****

Baboons and Shakespeare are a potent combination in this fabulous chamber opera by Alexander McCall Smith, in which the Scottish Play is relocated to the matrilineal baboon society of the Okavango Delta.

In this version of the story, Beth Mackay's honey-voiced Lady Macbeth seduces the trusting Duncan (a strong performance from baritone Andrew McTaggart) whom she is expected to marry, encourages her weak lover, Ronan Busfield as Macbeth, to kill him and is then devoured by a leopard. As the trio of primatologists observing the action, Jessica Leary, Nicholas Morris and Jamie Rock also excelled.

McCall Smith's succinct libretto was spun by composer Tom Cunningham into gorgeous, tuneful melodies that lingered long after the show ended.

Robert McFall's stunning arrangement of the original piano score for his group Mr McFall's Chamber, a string quartet augmented by a variety of instruments including marimba, djembe, fortepiano, saxophone and whistles, created an appropriately exotic soundscape, complete with animal noises.

Meanwhile conductor Michael Bawtree skilfully kept all the forces in balance, ensuring that nearly every word sung was clearly heard, and celebrated Cape Town director Nicholas Ellenbogen brilliantly coached his talented cast of students from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and Edinburgh Studio Opera to evoke wild African beasts through movement and the use of masks.