MACBETH- at Chicago Opera Theater

Soprano Suzan Hanson, Ford’s co-star in Long Beach, was a calm, shrewdly seductive Lady Macbeth. Seeing her simultaneously on video and in person we understand more fully her power over her husband. As she schemes onstage, a movie-sized image of her face hovers in the air, smiling slightly and turning slowly like a Hollywood actress preening for her close up. This is the woman of Macbeth’s dreams—alluring, powerful, willing to provide the courage he lacked.
Hanson’s soprano was clear yet never shrill, and the plaintive undercurrent of her mad scene was touching.

Wayne Delacoma - Musical America

Lady Macbeth (Soprano Suzan Hanson) positively oozes sex. She and her king (Baritone Nmon Ford) engage in both consensual and—shockingly–non consensual copulation

Clint May - Chicago Critic

As Lady Macbeth, Suzan Hanson is well cast as the manipulative, ambitious wife who is all too aware that her own potency is limited. She effectively plays to both the camera and her onstage interlocutors and conveys the intelligence and self-awareness of the character, while not shying away from the ugliness of her lust for power. Vocally, Hanson attacks the score with assurance, letting her character choices inform her musical choices and creating a harrowing and moving portrayal of desperation. Both Ford and Hanson throw themselves into the erotic allegory of Mitisek’s vision and, fortunately, also find the few moments of humor in the bleak material.

Kerstin Brookmann - Chicago Stage Standard

Suzan Hanson, a Mitisek regular, is Ford's equal in dramatic and musical intelligence... In voice, body and dramatic movement she inhabits Lady Macbeth with mesmerizing intensity. Her imperious beauty is a natural for the cameras, which miss nary a nuance crossing her expressive face.

John Van Rhein - Chicago Tribune

Suzan Hanson’s Lady Macbeth is a lesson in restraint; her playing emphasizes logic, however askew, and her descent into madness comes surprisingly, refreshingly late to the party.

- New City Stage

It was around this table that the sensuous relationship between Macbeth (a powerfully introspective and vocally strong performance by Nmon Ford) and that of his scheming wife (a vocally radiant and seductive Suzan Hanson) developed a plan to kill King Duncan, spurred on by the Witches’ prophesy that Macbeth would be king.

Kathleen Tobin - Chicago Arts Alive