Macbeth

By Giuseppe Verdi

A revival of the 2007 Festival Production supported by Jon and Julia Aisbitt
Sung in Italian with English supertitles

Listen to Audio Extracts:


Clips courtesy of EMI Classics. New Philharmonia Orchestra, Ambriosian Opera Chorus, Riccardo Muti

‘This tragedy is one of the greatest creations of man! If we can’t do something great with it, let us at least try to do something out of the ordinary …’ So wrote Verdi to his librettist, Piave, when starting work on his adaptation of Shakespeare’s ‘Scottish play’. And, while no-one now doubts that the resulting opera marked a magnificent milestone in the composer’s mastery of dramatic writing, Richard Jones’s tartanclad take on it lives up to Verdi’s words in being nothing if not wildly and wonderfully ‘out of the ordinary’.

This broodingly fatalistic staging is conducted for this revival by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra’s Principal Conductor, Vasily Petrenko, recently hailed by The Times as a ‘Russian wizard’ following his transformation of the orchestra’s artistic profile.

Polish baritone Andrzej Dobber (last heard here as Kurwenal in the 2009 Festival’s Tristan und Isolde) reprises his interpretation of the murderously ambitious, but ultimately nihilistic thane, while Swedish- American soprano Erika Sunnegårdh makes her Festival debut as the axe-wielding Lady Macbeth, whose guilt-haunted sleep-walking scene is one of the unforgettable highlights of this dazzlingly inventive score.


Performance schedule Festival 2010

Date Price band Perf starts Long interval Finish Train departs Victoria Post opera coach
Sun 13 June * 2 4.10 5.45-7.05 8.25 12.47 8.55
Thur 17 June 2 5.25 7.00-8.20 9.40 2.47 10.15
Sun 20 June * 2 4.10 5.45-7.05 8.25 12.47 8.55
Sat 26 June 2 5.25 7.00-8.20 9.40 2.47 10.15
Tue 29 June 2 5.25 7.00-8.20 9.40 2.47 10.15
Fri 2 July 2 5.25 7.00-8.20 9.40 2.47 10.15
Tue 6 July 3 5.25 7.00-8.20 9.40 2.47 10.15
Sat 10 July 2 5.25 7.00-8.20 9.40 2.47 10.15
Mon 12 July 2 5.25 7.00-8.20 9.40 2.47 10.15
Fri 16 July 3 5.25 7.00-8.20 9.40 2.47 10.15
Wed 21 July 2 5.25 7.00-8.20 9.40 2.47 10.15
Sat 24 July 2 5.25 7.00-8.20 9.40 2.47 10.15

Key

* = Pre-performance talk available in the in the Ebert Room.


Creative team

Conductor Vasily Petrenko
Director Richard Jones
Revival Director Geoffrey Dolton
Designer Ultz
Lighting Designer Wolfgang Göbbel
Movement Director Linda Dobell

Cast

Lady Macbeth Erika Sunnegårdh
Macbeth Andrzej Dobber (June 13, 17, 20, 26, 29; July 2, 6, 10, 12) & Stephen Gadd (July 16, 21, 24)
Banquo Stanislav Shvets
Macduff Yonghoon Lee
Doctor/Servant/Herald Richard Mosley-Evans
Lady Macbeth's Lady-in-waiting Miriam Murphy
Malcolm Riccardo Massi

London Philharmonic Orchestra
The Glyndebourne Chorus

The Witches in the 2007 Festival production. Macbeth Gallery

Production photography of the 2007 Festival production

Macbeth Synopsis Synopsis

Narrative summary for Macbeth.

Related merchandise

Macbeth c. Abbado (1976)
£13.00
c. Claudio Abbado. Domingo, Ghiaurov, Verrett, Cappuccilli. La Scala Milan Chorus & Orchestra (1976) 2CDs includes libretto

Macbeth c. Muti (1976)
£20.00
c. Riccado Muti. Milnes, Carreras, Raimondi, Cossotto. Ambrosian Opera Chorus & New Philharmonia Orchestra (1976) 2CDs

Macbeth DVD (1972)
£20.00
c. Pritchard. d. Hadjimischev. Paskalis, Barstow, Morris, Erwen, Woodland, Cales. L.P.O. NTSC, all regions.