When Verdi’s “Macbeth” returned to the Met Thursday night, miscasting doomed the revival as surely as any witch’s curse.
This 1865 opera should be a surefire hit, pairing Verdi’s propulsive music with Shakepeare’s tale of an ambitious couple who stop at nothing to gain the throne. The catch? The lead roles are among opera’s hardest to sing.
The weakest was the German soprano Nadja Michael, in her company debut as Lady Macbeth. Her toned frame and tousled blond mane evoked the latest incarnation of Madonna — but the Material Girl herself probably could have sung this strenuous music better.
Strident and chronically flat, Michael slurred most of the role’s coloratura, and her hammy, self-serving acting would make Faye Dunaway blush. A few atmospheric phrases in her sleepwalking scene offered no trade-off for the previous two hours’ caterwauling.
Next to her, Thomas Hampson’s shortcomings seemed relatively minor. A star at the Met for more than a quarter of a century, the baritone is legendary for his versatility. The role of Macbeth, however, took him out of his comfort zone.
His light, smoky voice lacked the muscle for the character’s many moments of rage, reducing his duets with Michael to yelling matches.
But his elegant legato illuminated intimate moments, such as the ill-fated king’s farewell to life, “Pietà, rispetto, amore.”
The Met fielded more solid singers in supporting roles. Günther Groissbõck brought a dark, gritty bass to the role of Macbeth’s betrayed comrade Banquo, and tenor Dimitri Pittas won a warm ovation for his sensitive performance of Macduff’s aria mourning his slain children.
The real star of the show, however, was the Met chorus. After a slightly scrappy start in the witches’ fast-paced opening scene, the group — well-trained by Donald Palumbo — brought heartfelt passion and pinpoint precision to the Scottish exiles’ lament for their war-torn homeland.
This was conductor Gianandrea Noseda’s finest moment, too, a respite from his nervous and brash tempos earlier in the work.
Adrian Noble’s 2007 production shifts the action to Cold War-era Europe, with a diorama of wintry trees surrounding a bleak industrial interior. The somber tone was marred only by a gaggle of chorus boys doing the Frug during the banquet scene.
According to an ancient theater superstition, it’s unlucky to say the title of Shakespeare’s play aloud. In the Met’s “Macbeth,” only the Lady was truly unmentionable.