Louisa Proske Makes Met Debut Directing 'Macbeth' Season Opener

Louisa Proske, who co-founded the small-scale Heartbeat Opera in 2014, will make her Metropolitan Opera debut directing a new production of Verdi's "Macbeth" that opens the company's season on Tuesday.

The assignment arrived less than a year ago, after another director withdrew — unusually short notice for a new production, which typically takes two or more years to plan. Met general manager Peter Gelb said Proske had been on his radar because of her work at Heartbeat, and that she was an obvious choice among those available quickly. Proske recalled Gelb asking whether she could work very fast, noting the design was already overdue. She said she welcomed the challenge.

Proske was able to bring on collaborators she had worked with before: costume designer Montana Levi Blanco and set designer Jon Bausor, both of whom have prior Met experience, and choreographer Jorrell Lawyer-Jefferson. She also knew the Shakespeare play well, having written her university thesis on it.

The cast is led by baritone Quinn Kelsey as Macbeth, with soprano Lise Davidsen as Lady Macbeth, tenor Freddie De Tommaso as Macduff and bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green as Banquo. Met music director Yannick Nezet-Seguin conducts. The production runs for 10 performances, with the Saturday matinee on Oct. 17 broadcast live to cinemas worldwide.

Kelsey said Proske's command of the rehearsal room suggested a director long familiar with the house, adding that she holds the cast's attention while sharing her ideas for the characters.

Proske describes the opera as a study of the corrupt lust for power, the unraveling of society and the slide into tyranny — themes she considers strikingly current. She cites Verdi's view that the story has three central figures: Macbeth, Lady Macbeth and the witches, who in this staging act as greedy observers of the couple's descent into crime and bloodshed, creeping through the walls like insects or mold as rules are broken.

Bausor's set evokes a modern war-torn landscape, built around a false proscenium resembling a concrete wall with a large blasted hole, through which castle and battlefield scenes unfold on a revolving turntable. Blanco's costumes, by contrast, draw on Shakespeare's era, with rich robes, gowns and tunics that Proske says speak about power.

Proske left Heartbeat in 2018 and returned to her native Germany, where she directed for four seasons at the opera house in Halle, in the northeastern state of Saxony-Anhalt. She has since freelanced in Europe and the United States.

Back at Heartbeat, artistic director Jacob Ashworth said the company takes pride in her rise and dismisses the idea that the Met is an adversary. He argued that downtown and radical companies generate ideas that eventually reach larger institutions, and that it is gratifying when the people behind them do too.