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Macbeth
by Giuseppe Verdi

Opera in three acts and ten scenes

Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave (with additional material by Andrea Maffei), after William Shakespeare's play

First performance: Florence; Teatro della Pergola, March 14, 1847
Sung in Italian with English supertitles above the stage

 

Macbeth was premiered in Florence, Italy, on March 14, 1847. It had its first performance in New York as early as 1850, then was revised extensively by the composer in 1865 for performances in Paris in French. Perhaps it really didn’t hit its stride until the 20th century with significant productions at La Scala featuring Maria Callas in 1952 and Birgit Nilsson in 1964. The Glyndeborne Festival production in the early 1970s featuring Josephine Bartstow, Kosta Paskalis and James Morris is legendary.

Piave, Verdi’s librettist for the work, was also the poet for nine other operas of Verdi, including Ernani, Rigoletto, La traviata, and La forza del Destino. He accepted a rough draft of the libretto from the composer and then wrote a version in verse. Neither the poetry nor the complex characters of the original are preserved in it. Instead, there is a sort of cutting to the jugular in its melodramatic telling of a vicious tale through music of fearsome brilliance and difficulty. The opera was very dear to the composer when he wrote it and remained so throughout his career. It is probably the strongest of the works preceding Rigoletto—a summation of all he did before it and a harbinger of the great works of the future.

Verdi’s passion for Shakespeare was intense and when the press accused him of not knowing the bard he replied, “I may not have rendered Macbeth well, but that I do not understand and feel Shakespeare, no, by heaven, no. He is one of my very special poets, and I have had him in my hands from my earliest youth, and I read and reread him continually.”

At the conclusion of his career, Verdi silenced all detractors in the quintessential tribute to Shakespeare of Otello and Falstaff, but already in Macbeth we have the burnished metal of the young hero facing his subject squarely with craft and bravado and creating a work that is breathtaking in its fury and intensity.
Our production combines elements of the Italian and French versions, adding the Macbeth death aria that was removed from the Paris productions.

 

CAST (in order of vocal appearance):

Soldiers, attendants, messengers, Scottish nobles and refugees, witches, bards and apparitions

Cast and opera are subject to change without notice.

 

PRODUCTION:

 

SETTING: 11th Century Scotland

 

Synopsis:

Act I
Scene 1: A forest
Macbeth and Banquo, generals in the army of King Duncan of Scotland, are returning from battle when they encounter witches. These creatures hail Macbeth, Thane of Glamis, as Thane of Cawdor and future King and Banquo as the father of Kings. When they vanish, messengers appear stating that the present Thane of Cawdor has been put to death for treachery and Macbeth now has the title. Amazed, Macbeth is lured to thoughts of the crown and Banquo to concern for Macbeth’s rising ambition.

Scene 2: A hall in Macbeth’s castle
In the great hall of the castle, Lady Macbeth reads a letter from her husband telling of his advancement and of the witches’ predictions. She exults in the power that will be hers and pledges to devote her strength and cunning to her husband’s destiny. A servant announces that King Duncan and his retinue will arrive to stay for the night. She invokes the powers of darkness to aid her in her monstrous plan. When Macbeth arrives, she greets him as Thane of Cawdor and wastes no time in insisting that they act to kill the King while he sleeps.

King Duncan and his train arrive and as the castle settles for the night, Macbeth is haunted by the vision of the knife which leads him on a path to murder. The tocsin sounds, which is the signal, and he rushes to the gory deed.Lady Macbeth waits for him and tries to calm him when he enters with bloodstained hands, having accomplished the act. She tells him to return to smear blood on the sleeping guards so that the blame will fall on them, but he refuses. She seizes the dagger and goes to do it herself.

A knock at the door is heard as she returns and they both slink away to their chambers. The noblemen, Macduff and Banquo, enter to awaken the King at dawn and discover the murder. The Court is summoned and expresses horror, begging God for retribution on the perpetrator of this hideous deed.

Act II
Scene 1: A room in the castle
Now King, Macbeth broods on the witches’ prophecy that Banquo’s progeny will wear the crown. He vows to his Lady that Banquo and his son will die. She watches him go and muses on the necessity of the knife and the joy of power.

Scene 2: A park near Macbeth’s castle
Assassins await Banquo and his son Fleance as they return from the hunt. Banquo is killed but Fleance escapes.

Scene 3: The banquet hall
In the banqueting hall of the castle, Macbeth and his Queen welcome their guests with a drinking song. One of the assassins arrives and tells Macbeth that Banquo is dead. The King is distressed to learn of Fleance’s escape. He turns to his guests to complain of Banquo’s absence from their feasting when suddenly he sees the ghost of his friend. He is deeply shaken. When Lady Macbeth berates him for his guilty behavior, he calms himself. The “brindisi” begins again, and once more Banquo appears. Macbeth’s cries cause his guests to think him mad. He vows amidst the tumult to visit the witches again and gain from them the truth of his destiny.

Act III
Scene 1: The witches’ cavern
In a rocky cavern the witches stir their caldron. Macbeth approaches and questions them and they conjure up a series of apparitions to reveal his future. The first is a warrior that tells him to beware of Macduff. The second is a bloody child that tells him that no man born of woman can harm him. The third is a child bearing a crown that states he will remain invincible until Birnam Wood marches on his castle at Dunsinane. Reassured he asks if indeed Banquo’s issue will wear the crown, whereupon eight kings march by him, the last of the line being Banquo himself with a mirror which reflects the other figures. The prediction is clear and Macbeth faints in despair. When he revives, Lady Macbeth joins him and they vow to destroy Macduff and all who stand in their path to glory.

Scene 2: The Scottish-English border
Near Birnam Wood, Scottish refugees lament for their beleaguered homeland caught in the bloody grip of a ruthless king. They trail hopelessly onward on their path to England. Macduff joins them for a moment and then sings of his despair in finding his wife and children slaughtered upon his return from English exile. He vows vengeance on the villainous Macbeth. When Malcolm, Duncan’s son, and English troops enter, the crowd of Scottish people rise up. They cut branches from Birnam Wood as camouflage and all unite in a call to arms.

Scene 3: A hall in Macbeth’s castle
The Court Physician and the Lady-in-Waiting await the arrival of the Queen who has been walking in her sleep for several nights. She appears with a candle then puts it aside to try ceaselessly to wipe bloodstains from her hands. She relives the murders and disappears in the dark corridor of the castle.

Scene 4: Another hall in the castle
Macbeth enters and defies the powers that mount against him, but his soul grows weary and he feels desperately alone. He is told of Lady Macbeth’s death and is given only a moment of bitter grief before he learns that indeed Birnam Wood advances on the castle. He calls for his armor, and his generals surround him in a call to arms.

Scene 5: A vast plain
Skirmishes in the castle and on the battlefield climax with the meeting of Macduff and Macbeth. The King challenges his assailant with the words of the witches that no man born of a woman can harm him, but Macduff counters that he was torn prematurely from his mother’s womb and overcomes the stunned ruler. Macbeth is left to curse the day he heeded the witches’ prophecy and to die a broken man. Malcolm is hailed the new King of Scotland.