Macbeth

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Washington National Opera

Premiere: November 14, 2024

Music by

Giuseppe Verdi

Libretto by

Francesco Maria Piave &

Andrea Maffei

after
William Shakespeare’s play

Conductor

Evan Rogister

Director

Brenna Corner

Scenic Designer

Erhard Rom

Projection Designer

S. Katy Tucker

Costume Coordinator

Kathleen Geldard

Fight Director

Casey Kaleba

Hair, Wig & Makeup Designer

Samantha M. Wootten

Surtitles

Corinne Hayes

Starring

Macbeth

Étienne Dupuis

Lady Macbeth

Ewa Płonka

Macduff

Kang Wang

Banquo

Soloman Howard

Link to production page

"The team of projectionist S. Katy Tucker and lighting designer A.J. Guban works minimalist magic. Colors are kept tightly restricted: blue night, green vapors, white lightning, red blood. At one point, a silhouette of black smoke floods the back wall, and the scene adopts the severe chiaroscuro of an oil painting."

- The Washington Post

"The lighting design by A.J. Guban is a masterclass in theatrical contrast.

He effectively delineates the spectral from the real, enhancing the tension of Macbeth’s unraveling."

- MD Theatre Guide

"...[T]he production’s evocative strength came from AJ Guban’s light and S. Katy Tucker’s video projections. This included sickly green hues and curling smoke for the witches, projected on the strips of cloth and the hags’ costumes, as well as the visual component of the Act III apparitions."

- Washington Classical Review

"Well done, director Corner, scenic designer Erhard Rom, lighting designer A. J. Guban, and projection designer S. Katy Tucker!"

- Opera Gene

"... brought to life through Erhard Rom’s abstract scenic design and AJ Guban’s atmospheric lighting, creates a psychological landscape where the supernatural and the human blur together."

- Medium

"Katy Tucker’s projections interject brooding dark clouds. A. J. Guban’s lighting design bathes the stage in exotic colors to convey the apparitions who torture the unhinged Macbeth when he seeks to learn more of his fate. The effects add to the drama without overwhelming the human dimensions."

- The New Criterion