Monday Opera Series – The Verdi Baritone – Macbeth

Macbeth – the ruthless Scottish king guided by supernatural prophesies

Macbeth is Verdi’s brilliant 10th opera & was created when the Pergola Theatre in Florence asked him for a scary, spooky, supernatural experience, in 1847. He based it on William Shakespeare’s paranormal play about ambition and treachery from 1606, which was designed to curry favour with the newly-arrived Scottish King James I, a man who had written a treatise on witchcraft, and had just survived a failed assassination attempt with “the gunpowder plot”. In play or opera, can we ever feel pity for this superstitious, traitorous social-climber? A great stage-actor, or singing-actor, can make us do so.

The Verdi Baritone
Mon Jan 4, Mon Jan 11, Mon Jan 18,
Mon Feb 1, Mon Feb 8