Macbeth

The story

Driven by the gloomy prophecies of a clan of witches and the all-consuming ambition of his wife, Macbeth plunges into a hellish spiral leading him to the throne of Scotland… and to madness. Assassinating King Duncan to don his crown, Macbeth is consumed by a thirst for power, hunting down anyone who threatens him. Tormented by remorse, by the ghosts of his victims, devastated by the death of his wife, Macbeth inexorably descends towards the inevitable fall of his reign.

Libretto

Francesco Maria Piave — based on the eponymous play by William Shakespeare

Verdi's first foray into the Shakespearean world, Macbeth reveals his fascination with tormented souls. Composed in 1847 for the Teatro della Pergola in Florence

despite the rest prescribed by his doctors, the opera testifies to his veneration for the Bard. Demanding of his librettist, Verdi requests "few words, but significant" and even has the last two acts revised by the poet Andrea Maffei.

During its Paris revival in 1865, Verdi profoundly revised the score, adding a ballet and the aria "La luce langue". He deploys orchestral sounds with a real harmonic boldness that foreshadows Otello and Falstaff, while with the role of Lady Macbeth, he marks the history of opera. The madness scene is quite atypical for the time. The great vocal range and the search for expressiveness of Lady Macbeth prevailing over the melodic line make it one of the peaks of the dramatic soprano repertoire.

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