Macbeth and Verdi

Macbeth is opening at The Old Globe this weekend and it has me thinking about musical settings of Shakespeare. Besides Goethe, Shakespeare is the most influential author in classical music. Perhaps Shakespeare supersedes Goethe’s influence. I’m not sure and that’s probably a topic for another time.

There are pieces of music which are based on Shakespeare which might not be immediately obvious such as Schubert’s song An Sylvia which is a setting of a soliloquy from Two Gentlemen of Verona. Wagner based his early opera Das Liebesverbot on Measure for Measure. Berlioz’s Béatrice et Bénédict is based on Much Ado About Nothing.

There are also obvious settings such as Romeo and Juliet by Charles Gounod or Hamlet by Ambroise Thomas. When it comes to operas based on Shakespeare, Verdi is the ruler. His Otello, Falstaff, and Macbeth are amongst the most successful operatic attempts at the bard.

I think it should be obvious that we’re going to look at Macbeth since it’s the show going up at the Globe. Macbeth was Verdi’s tenth opera and it premiered in 1847. He revised it almost 20 years later in 1865 for a production in Paris. The 1865 production is now the standard version.

Verdi’s Macbeth has been subjected to a ridiculous number of psycho-dramatic productions which try to ram an interpretation down our throats. Just telling the story is no longer good enough. I suppose Shakespeare and Verdi didn’t know what they were doing. I’ve chosen a video that is somewhat straightforward.

That Macbeth is a psycho-drama is fairly obvious. The show is covered in blood from top to bottom but the killing all happens off stage.

Verdi experimented with voice casting when it came to the ruthless yet ultimately fragile Lady Macbeth. The first soprano hired for the role was sacked because she was too pretty and her voice too beautiful. Verdi wanted a cast-iron-bitch who could peel the paint off the walls with her voice.

It’s one of the first instances where the quality of the singing was sacrificed for the dramatic impact of the voice. The tradition didn’t stick and the role has been sung by the leading sopranos or each era. It’s not a character role such as Mime in The Ring Cycle or Herod in Salome. Lady Macbeth needs to be able to sing and sing well.