show category: opera

Opera in  four acts, on a libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, after the homonymous tragedy by William Shakespeare

The first among Giuseppe Verdi’s three operas inspired by William Shakespeare’s theatrical works – preceding  Otello and Falstaff -, Macbeth represents a story about power, political intrigue, and magic, centering staging of the leading couple of Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth. Throughout his life, G. Verdi has been passionate about politics, composing “Macbeth” at a tense moment in the history of Italy, when most of the peninsula was under Austrian domination. Verdi had been a sympathizer of the Italian Unification, or Risorgimento, as it was known in his native language (transl. movement for the unification and independence of Italy), thus Macbeth reflects these affinities. The opera’s premiere was staged at Teatro della Pergola in Florence on March 14, 1847, and a revised version of the work was presented on April 21, 1865, at Théâtre Lyrique in Paris.

Macbeth is primarily represented by the themes of tyranny, freedom, and magic, the action being set in 11th-century Scotland. The witch’s predictions set the leading couple on a terrible venture that implies madness, crime, and self-destruction. Under the vision of those prophecies and their untamed ambition, Macbeth and his wife, an archetypal power couple, commit several crimes to obtain and keep the Scottish throne. The word “blood” is, thus, mentioned 24 times through the performance, while “bloody” is invoked 15 times. Each moment of the opera oscillates, on the knife blade, between reality and hallucination, earth and hell.  From the overture’s first lurid notes, until the shattering protagonists’ arias, macabre choirs of the witches and Scottish criminals, manifesting their ordeals, Verdi’s music powerfully evokes the chore of evil. Macbeth is an opera of frightening beauty that Giuseppe Verdi himself has extracted from Shakespeare’s magic, crime, and madness moments, bestowing it with even more intensity, which translates into an exploration of tyranny and a surprising journey of soul loss. The bluntness of the libretto, the transparency of its characters, and the shades of thriller bring the entire action to an even more enticing perception.

While the tyrannic highlighting in this Verdian opera represents an innovative element, the connection between Macbeth and Shakespeare’s play shines through questions of fate and liberty: are Macbeth and Lady Macbeth pawns of evil spirits? Do they excuse their thirst for power through a supernatural belief? Just like Shakespeare, Verdi has also safely kept the mystery of these questions.

Join us as we discover this tale of power and malefic ambition, destiny, and prophecy! All predictions shall come true! Step into the legend!

 
The performance has three breaks and lasts for about 3 hours and 30 minutes.

The performance is interpreted in Italian with Romanian supertitles. 

Recommended age: 14+