Macbeth (, )"Macbeth" - DiPI Online. is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi, with an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave and additions by Andrea Maffei, based on William Shakespeare's play of the same name. Written for the Teatro della Pergola in Florence, Macbeth was Verdi's tenth opera and premiered on 14 March 1847. It was the first Shakespeare play that Verdi adapted for the operatic stage. Almost twenty years later, Macbeth was revised and expanded into a French version and given in Paris on 21 April 1865.
After the success of Attila in 1846, by which time the composer had become well established, Macbeth came before the great successes of 1851 to 1853 (Rigoletto, Il trovatore and La traviata) which propelled him into universal fame. As sources, Shakespeare's plays provided Verdi with lifelong inspiration: some, such as an adaption of King Lear (as Re Lear) were never realized, but he wrote his two final operas using Othello as the basis for Otello (1887) and The Merry Wives of Windsor as the basis for Falstaff (1893).
The first version of Macbeth was completed during the time that Verdi described as his "galley years," which ranged over 16 yearsVerdi to Clara Maffei, 12 May 1858, in Phillips-Matz, p. 379. He wrote: "From Nabucco, you may say, I have never had one hour of peace. Sixteen years in the galleys!" and saw the composer produce 22 operas. By the standards of the subject matter of almost all Italian operas produced during the first fifty years of the 19th century, Macbeth was highly unusual. The 1847 version was very successful, and it was presented widely. The 1865 revision, produced in a French translation and with several additions, was first given on 21 April. It was less successful, and the opera largely faded from public view until the mid-20th century revivals.
Composition history
Original 1847 version
Influenced by his friendship in the 1840s with Andrea Maffei, a poet and man of letters who had suggested both Schiller's Die Räuber (The Robbers) and Shakespeare's play Macbeth as suitable subjects for operas,Budden, pp. 269-270 Giuseppe Verdi received a commission from Florence's Teatro della Pergola, but no particular opera was specified.Parker, p. 111 He only started working on Macbeth in September 1846, the reason for that choice was the availability of a particular singer, the baritone Felice Varesi who would sing the title role.Baldini, p. 109 With Varesi under contract, Verdi could focus on the music for Macbeth. (Maffei was already writing a libretto for I masnadieri, which was based on the suggested Schiller play, but it could have been substituted for Macbeth had the baritone not been available.) As a result of various complications, including Verdi's illness, that work was not to receive its premiere until July 1847.
Piave's text was based on a prose translation by Carlo Rusconi that had been published in Turin in 1838. Verdi did not encounter Shakespeare's original work until after the opera's first performance. However, he had read Shakespeare in translation for many years, as noted in an 1865 letter: "He is one of my favorite poets. I have had him in my hands from my earliest youth".
Writing to Piave, Verdi made it clear how important this subject was to him: "....This tragedy is one of the greatest creations of man... If we can't make something great out of it, let us at least try to do something out of the ordinary."Verdi to Piave, 4 September 1846, in Budden, p. 270 Despite disagreements and Verdi's need to constantly bully Piave into correcting his drafts (to the point where Maffei had a hand in re-writing some scenes of the libretto, especially the witches' chorus in Act 3 and the sleepwalking scene),Budden, p. 272Verdi to Ricordi, 11 April 1857, in Budden, p. 274: Maffei's contributions were "with the consent of Piave himself"), their version follows Shakespeare's play quite closely, but with some changes. Instead of using three witches as in the play, there is a large female chorus of witches, singing in three-part harmony (they are divided in three groups, and every group sings as a single witch, using "I" and not "we"). The last act begins with an assembly of refugees on the English border and, in the revised version, ends with a chorus of bards celebrating victory over the tyrant.
1865 revised version for Paris
As early as 1852, Verdi was requested to revise his Macbeth for Paris. At first, nothing transpired, but in 1864 Verdi was asked again to provide additional music – a ballet and a final chorus – for a production planned at the Théâtre Lyrique (Théâtre-Lyrique Impérial du Châtelet) in Paris. In a letter to his publisher, Giulio Ricordi, asking for a copy of the score, Verdi stated, "I would like to lengthen several pieces to give the opera more character."Verdi to Ricordi, 2 November 1864, in Phillips-Matz 1993, p. 476 Still, he quickly realized that the proposed additions would not be sufficient and that an overhaul of the opera was required. He went ahead to advise the impresario of the Lyrique, Léon Carvalho, that more time was needed and urged patience: "I am labouring, labouring, labouring" he assured the impresarioVerdi to Escudier, 2 December 1864, in Phillips-Matz 1993, p. 479 and stressed that he wanted to look at the big picture and not try to hurry along a re-working of an opera he had written so many years before.
So began a revising the original version of 1847 over the winter of 1864/65. Verdi's librettist from years before, Francesco Maria Piave, was pressed into service to expand the opera. The composer exerted his usual pressures on him as he had done from their first collaboration: "No, no, my dear Piave, it won't do!" was a typical reaction to a first draft—in this case, it was of Lady Macbeth's new act 2 aria "La luce langue,"Verdi to Piave, 20 December 1864, in Phillips-Matz 1993, p. 479/80 the result of which (notes biographer Mary Jane Phillips-Matz) was "from Verdi's insistence came Lady Macbeth's gripping scene."Phillips-Matz 1993, p. 479/80 With the addition of music for Lady Macbeth, Macbeth's aria in Act 3 was completely re-written—as was a considerable amount of the rest of Act 3; a ballet was added in Act 3; a newly composed chorus to an old text began Act 4; and the ending of Act 4 was also changed, Verdi, being determined to drop Macbeth's final aria Mal per me che m'affidai ("Trusting in the prophecies of Hell") in favor of an off-stage death, to end with the triumphal chorus.
As if all these specific demands placed on Piave were not enough, Verdi wrote a lengthy letter to Ricordi outlining what he saw as the dramatic demands of the revision. Some relate to crucial elements in the drama, especially how Banquo's appearance as a ghost should be presented. Ultimately however, Verdi had little power over the staged production, but— regarding the translation—he did insist that the translator, when considering the Act 2 duet between the Macbeth couple, retain the words "Folie follie" as written to emphasize the dramatic impact which those words created.Verdi to Ricordi, 23 January 1865, in Phillips-Matz 1993, p. 481
One final letter, this time in February to Escudier, relates to what Verdi saw as "the three roles in this opera, and there can only be three". He then lays out that there is "Lady Macbet, (sic) Macbet, (sic) [and the] Chorus of Witches," discounting the role of Macduff,Verdi to Escudier, 8 February 1865, in Phillips-Matz 1993, p. 482 and he continues by noting that, for him, "the Witches rule the drama.....They are truly a character and a character of greatest importance."
The new version was first performed on 21 April 1865 in a French translation by Charles-Louis-Étienne Nuitter and Alexandre Beaumont. However, Verdi had asked for it to be done by Gilbert Duprez, the tenor-turned-teacher in whom he had great confidence and whom he knew from his performances in his first opera for Paris, Jérusalem, in 1847. The composer refused to attend the Paris performance but provided directions via his publisher, others directly to Escudier. Initially, the reports from Escudier were favorable. Still, the first performance was poorly received by the critics, something which puzzled the composer: "I thought I had done quite well with it...it appears I was mistaken" he stated when he wrote to his Paris publisher, Escudier.Verdi to Escudier, 3 June 1865, in Budden, p.278 Later performances in Paris fared no better.
In Italian, the opera was given at La Scala in the autumn of 1865, but few, if any, others in Italy appear to have been presented. Since its revival in Europe in the 1960s, the revised version of Macbeth in Italian remains the preferred version for modern performances, although occasionally the death scene from the first version is interpolated in the last scene.
Performance history
19th century
The 1847 version, after it was first given on 14 March of that year in Florence, was successful and was performed all over Italy in some 21 locations (some repeated) Performances of the first version up to 1863 on librettodopera.it until the revised version appeared in 1865. At that time it was recorded that it was given only in Turin (1867), Vicenza (1869), Firenze (1870), and Milan (1874).
The first version was given its United States premiere in April 1850 at Niblo's Garden in New York with Angiolina Bosio as Lady Macbeth and Cesare Badiali as Banco, while the United Kingdom premiere took place in October 1860 in Manchester.
After the 1865 premiere of the revised version, followed by only 13 more performances, the opera generally fell from popularity. It was given in Paris in April 1865 and then occasionally up to about 1900. However, after that, it was rarely performed until after World War II.
20th century and beyond
The US premiere of the later version did not occur until 24 October 1941 in New YorkDavid Kimbell 2001, in Holden, p. 984 when it was staged by the New Opera Company at Broadway's 44th Street Theatre with conductor Fritz Busch. The cast included Jess Walters in the title role, Florence Kirk as Lady Macbeth, Robert Silva as Banquo, Robert Marshall as Macduff, John Hamill as Malcolm, Martha Lipton as the Lady-in-waiting, and Leon Lishner as the Doctor.
However, two European productions, in Berlin in the 1930s and at Glyndebourne in 1938 and 1939, were important in helping the 20th-century revival. The 1938 production was the UK premiere of the revised version and the first to combine the death of Macbeth from the 1847 version with the triumphal ending from the 1865 version, something totally against Verdi's wishes.Budden, p.310
Glyndebourne revived it in the 1950s, as did Teatro alla Scala in 1952 with Maria Callas as Lady Macbeth, but it was not until 1959 that it appeared on the Metropolitan Opera's roster for the first time and has often been performed there since then.Metropolitan Opera's performance archive The Opera Guild of Montreal presented the Canadian premiere of Macbeth in January 1959, beating the Metropolitan Opera by two weeks. Similarly, the first presentations at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, with Tito Gobbi (and others in the title role) took place on 30 March 1960, with other productions presented in 1981 and 2002. The visiting "Kirov Opera" (as today's Mariinsky Opera was then known) presented it in London at Covent Garden in 2001.
In recent times, the opera has appeared more frequently in the repertories of companies such as the Washington National Opera (2007) and the San Francisco Opera (Nov/Dec 2007) and in many other opera houses worldwide, but almost all productions stage the revised version in Italian.