The reviews are in and they are all first rate!
Chris Jones of the Chicago Tribune writes: It was striking that the moment that landed with the most force Friday was perhaps the opera’s least characteristic aria, Macduff’s “Ah, la paterna mano.” That had a lot to do with the wrenchingly immersive passion of the singer, the fine American tenor Joshua Guerrero, but surely was also a consequence of the familiarity of the simple, human sentiments in the aria, which mourns the loss of the children and explicates the feelings of anyone who has been bereaved: Was there more I could have done? Guerrero was fortunate there but he still deserves his acclaim. It is a stunner of a performance and, frankly, the true connective tissue of those two warring factions of the night.
Aaron Hunt of the Newcitystage writes: Tenor Joshua Guerrero’s Macduff provided the heart of the story, his acting more than sufficient to be transferred to a high-level, non-musical production of Shakespeare’s play, his brilliantly delivered aria answered by one of the audience’s longest ovations of the evening.
In the Chicago Classical Review: As Macbeth’s nemesis Macduff— here a kind of conflicted anti-hero—tenor Joshua Guerrero received the most enthusiastic ovation of the evening in his Lyric Opera debut. The Las Vegas native showed real Italianate squillo in his sole aria (“Ahi la paterno mano!”) lamenting Macbeth’s murder of his family.
Amy Munice from Picture this Post writes: It’s no wonder that Joshua Guerrero’s sweet tenor voice as Macduff is a clear audience favorite. It is the sound of a ray of light we thirst for — having been primed our entire lives to couple darkness with light. His aria struck this writer as like a prayer, reminding that even in a blood-soaked battlefield, we can nourish hope that there will be an antidote to the miserable darkness of runaway power lust at the heart of this tale, just like so many of today’s headlines.