Opera in 4 acts
Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave & Andrea Maffei
first performed Teatro alla Pergola, Florence, March 14 1847
This production first seen December 1 2024
Sung in Italian with German & English surtitles
Introductory talks (in German) in the Holzfoyer 30 mins before curtain up, available on video here shortly before opening night and everywhere where podcasts can be found.
Macbeth Nicholas Brownlee / Domen Križaj
Banquo Thomas Faulkner / Andreas Bauer Kanabas
Lady Macbeth Signe Heiberg
Macduff Kudaibergen Abildin / Gerard Schneider
Malcolm Abraham Bretón
Lady-in-waiting Nombulelo Yende / Julia Stuart°
Doctor Jarrett Porter
Servant / Murderer / Herald Morgan-Andrew King°
°Member of the Opera Studio
Macbeth and Banquo encounter weird women, who greet Macbeth with his inherited title of Thane of Glamis, the Thane of Cawdor and the future King of Scotland. They prophesy that Banquo’s descendants will ascend the throne one day. Messengers bring news that the King had Cawdor executed for treason and bestowed his title on Macbeth. The prophesy seems to have come true. Macbeth tries to fathom what this could lead to. He tells Lady Macbeth about the encounter in a letter. When King Duncan comes to stay the night, Lady Macbeth pressurises her hesitant husband to kill the old man in his sleep. Macbeth overcomes his qualms and commits murder, but is seized by terrible fear and guilt. It’s left to Lady Macbeth to take the knife back to Duncan’s quarters and smear his guards with blood so suspicion will fall on them. When Banquo and Macduff find the murdered King next morning, universal horror breaks out. Act 2 Malcolm, King Duncan’s son, fled to England, making him seem guilty of having murdered his own father. The crown passes to Macbeth, but the childless couple are obessed with fears that Banquo’s descendants might inherit it one day. They decide to get rid of him and his son Fleance. Macbeth’s hired assassins kill Banquo; but Fleance manages to escape. A party’s being held to celebrate the new first couple, but Macbeth starts seeing ghosts and shocks the guests. His wife tries in vain to restore the atmosphere with a rousing drinking song. Macbeth’s lapses cause consternation; the party’s over. Macbeth decides to consult the weird women again. Act 3 Macbeth visits the mystics, who are celebrating a witches Sabbath. He forces them to reveal the future. Three apparitions give him to understand: He should beware Macduff; no man, »born of woman«, could endanger him; he can be as bloodthirsty as he likes, as long as Birnam wood doesn’t move towards him. His renewed question about whether Banquo’s descendants will rule too is answered in another apparition. He passes out. Lady Macbeth galvanizes her husband. They decide: Macduff and his family must die; and anyone else who might present a danger to them. Macbeth now feels invincible. Act 4 Scotland’s turned into a slaughterhouse: refugees in Birnam wood complain bitterly that the tyrant Macbeth’s to blame for their loved ones deaths. Macduff’s distraught that he didn’t protect his family; he was on the run and in hiding when the murderers struck. Malcolm arrives to liberate them, calling on everyone to end this reign of terror by cutting off branches and hiding behind them. Her lady-in-waiting and doctor hear Lady Macbeth, while sleepwalking, revealing all the crimes she and her husband committed. Constantly talking about a spot of blood that won‘t go away. Macbeth arms himself against Malcolm and his men. He now realises how much he is hated. Then he’s told his wife‘s dead; and Birnam wood is advancing. The prophesies were ambiguous: When Macduff confronts the hated enemy he tells him he wasn’t born but »from his mother’s womb untimely ripped«. He kills Macbeth. The battle is won; Malcolm is anointed King.
Who are we, who do we want to be? How far will longing for more power, wealth and a more elevated position in society make peope go? Triggered by a curious encounter, which he thinks is a prophesy, Macbeth’s wife goads him into murdering King Duncan. The throne falls to him, but remorse and hallucinations throw him deeper and deeper into turmoil, while Lady Macbeth urges him to carry out more atrocious deeds. But her feelings of guilt ending up destroying her too. R.B. Schlather’s production traces the extraordinary actuality of the protagonists, just as Verdi was fascinated by Shakespeare’s King and Queen. The Director studied the gruesome events surrounding a childless couple in an elegant but cheerless atmosphere of an imposing residence: global politics mirrored in private lives. In the end the oppressed put a violent end to the Macbeth’s autocratic regime.
