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Opera Giuseppe Verdi "Macbeth" opera in four acts (сoncert performance)
World famous Mariinsky Ballet and Opera - Mariinsky II (New Theatre)


Schedule for Giuseppe Verdi "Macbeth" opera in four acts (сoncert performance) 2022

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Principal Chorus Master: Andrei Petrenko
Musical Preparation: Irina Soboleva

Orchestra: Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra

opera in concert in 4 acts

World premiere: 14 March 1847, Teatro della Pergola, Florence, Italy

Classics of the Italian Opera.
Macbeth was Verdi's first Shakespeare opera, and he began it late in 1846 for a production in Florence. The composer chose his stories carefully, and he had always admired Shakespeare. But this time the choice was purely practical: the only other story Verdi had in his creative pipeline needed a tenor for the lead role, and no reliable tenors were available. The title role of Macbeth called for a baritone, and one of the best baritones in Italy was at hand.

From the start, Verdi decided this score would be one of his best, if only in homage to its subject. He called Shakespeare's play "one of mankind's greatest creations." He worked closely with the librettist, Franceso Piave, and had a strong hand — some said a heavy hand — in casting and production decisions. For example, Verdi vetoed the theater's first choice of sopranos to play Lady Macbeth. He said the singer they chose was too good-looking, and had too pleasing a voice to portray such a sinister character.

Libretto - Francesco Maria Piave,
after the tragedy by William Shakespeare

Original Design - Tanya McCallin
Original Lighting Design - Davy Cunningham

•World premiere: 14 March 1847, Teatro della Pergola, Florence;
•Premiere of this production: 18 April 2001, Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg

Performed in Italian

The Performance has one intermission

VIVA VERDI!
Like any great talent, Verdi is an embodiment of his nationality and his age. He is a flower of his native land. He is the voice of modern Italy <…> an Italy that has awoken to consciousness. An Italy troubled by political storms, an Italy that is bold and passionate to the point of frenzy.
Alexander Serov

The words in the epigraph above are all the more poignant for having been spoken by an outstanding Russian musician who had previously often appeared in print criticising Verdi’s operas. In their battle for Russian music, many cultural figures in Russia protested against the preponderance of Italian music at Russian opera houses. Once the “teething troubles” of its infancy had been overcome and when the operas of Glinka, Musorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky stood shoulder to shoulder with the very best classical works, the music of the great Italian was discovered in all its artistic beauty and meaningfulness for all humanity.
Verdi’s compatriots understood this before anyone else. The twenty-six-year-old composer’s very first opera Oberto (1839) proved a success and was staged in Milan, Turin, Genoa and Naples... And, just three years later, the premiere of Nabucco at the Teatro alla Scala resulted in endless ovations from the ecstatic audience; by the end of 1842 the opera had been performed sixty-five times! The famous chorus of Hebrew slaves from Act III Và, pensiero, sull’ali dorate (“Fly, thought, on wings of gold”) was taken by the Italians as a symbol of the struggle to free themselves from an oppressive foreign power. It should come as no surprise that, sixty years later, this chorus was performed impromptu by the several-thousand-strong crowd that accompanied Verdi on his final journey! In February 1859 the Teatro Apollo in Rome hosted the premiere of Un ballo in maschera; the audience gave the composer a standing ovation with cries of “Viva Verdi!” This was to become the slogan of the Italian revolution – for contemporaries, the naively concealed meaning was obvious: VERDI – Vittorio Emmanuele, Re D’Italia (Victor Emmanuel, King of Italy). It doesn’t come as a surprise that when declaring victory, Cavour (a minister of the king who unified Italy) was unable to find the right words and in some surge of inspiration started to sing Manrico’s heroic cabaletta from Il trovatore! Verdi’s music is inseparable from the age of “Risorgimento” – the name given to a time of intense upheaval in spiritual life in Italy, a time of national and political renaissance.
The two-hundredth anniversary of the birth of Giuseppe Verdi, a composer admired across the globe, provides us with a wonderful opportunity to remember the love that is felt for the composer’s music in Russia. And also that, with a few rare exceptions, more than twenty of his operas have been staged at Russian theatres over the years, both in St Petersburg and Moscow and in the provinces. The Mariinsky Theatre is continuing the tradition of the St Petersburg Board of Imperial Theatres, which commissioned Verdi to compose one of his most famous operas – La forza del destino – one hundred and fifty years ago. Alongside incredibly popular masterpieces (such as Aida, Don Carlo, Macbeth, La traviata, Rigoletto, Un ballo in maschera, Otello and Falstaff...), the theatre’s playbill also lists the comparatively rarely staged Nabucco and Attila. Gala concerts of Verdi’s music introduce audiences to choruses and arias from the composer’s operas. There have been concert and stage versions of the epic Requiem in memory of Alessandro Manzoni, an Italian author whom Verdi considered to be a fine example of patriotic valour. The music of Verdi, one of Italy’s most outstanding composers, makes up some of classical music’s most timeless treasures.
Iosif Raiskin





Synopsis

Act 1

Scotland in the 11th century. Groups of witches gather in a wood beside a battlefield. The victorious generals Macbeth and Banquo enter. The witches hail Macbeth as Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor, and king "hereafter." Banquo is greeted as the founder of a great line of future kings. The witches vanish, and messengers from the king appear naming Macbeth Thane of Cawdor.

At their castle, Lady Macbeth reads a letter from her husband telling of the encounter with the witches. She is determined to propel Macbeth to the throne (’Vieni! t’affretta!’). It is announced that King Duncan will stay in the castle that night and when Macbeth enters she urges him to take the opportunity to kill him. The King and the nobles arrive. Macbeth is emboldened to carry out the murder (’Mi si affaccia un pugnal?’), but afterwards is filled with horror. Lady Macbeth, disgusted at his cowardice, completes the crime, incriminating the sleeping guards by smearing them with Duncan’s blood and planting on them Macbeth’s dagger. The murder is discovered by Macduff. A chorus calls on God to avenge the killing (’Schiudi, inferno, . .’).

Act 2

Macbeth is now king, but disturbed by the prophecy that Banquo, not him, will found a great royal line. To prevent this he tells his wife that he will have both Banquo and his son murdered as they come to a banquet. Lady Macbeth exults in the powers of darkness (’La luce langue’). Outside the castle a gang of murderers lie in wait. Banquo is apprehensive (’Come dal ciel precipita’). He is caught but enables his son Fleanzio to escape. In a hall in the castle, Macbeth receives the guests and Lady Macbeth sings a brindisi (’Si colmi il calice’). The assassination is reported to Macbeth, but when he returns to the table the ghost of Banco is sitting in his place. Macbeth raves at the ghost and the horrified guests believe he has gone mad. The banquet ends abruptly with their hurried, frightened departure.

Act 3

The witches gather around a cauldron in a dark cave. Macbeth enters and they conjure up three apparitions for him. The first advises him to beware of Macduff. The second tells him that he cannot be harmed by a man ’born of woman’. The third that he cannot be conquered till Birnam Wood marches against him. Macbeth is then shown the ghost of Banquo and his descendants, eight future Kings of Scotland, verifying the original prophecy. He collapses and regains consciousness in the castle. Macbeth and his wife resolve to extirpate the families of Macduff and Banquo (’Ora di morte e di vendetta’).

Act 4

A chorus of Scottish refugees (’Patria oppressa’) stand near the English border. In the distance lies Birnam Wood. Macduff is determined to avenge the deaths of his wife and children at the hands of the tyrant (’Ah la paterna mano’). He is joined by Malcolm, the son of King Duncan, and the English army. Malcolm orders each soldier to cut a branch from a tree in Birnam Wood and carry it as they attack Macbeth’s army. They are determined to liberate Scotland from tyranny (’La patria tradita’).

In Macbeth’s castle a doctor and a servant observe the Queen as she walks in her sleep, wringing her hands and attempting to clean them of blood (’Una macchia’). Macbeth has learned that an army is advancing against him but is reassured by remembering the words of the apparitions. (’Pietа, rispetto amore’) He receives the news of the Queen’s death with indifference. Rallying his troops he learns that Birnam Wood has indeed come to his castle. Battle is joined. Macduff pursues and kills Macbeth, telling him that he was not ’born’ of woman but ’cut’ from his mother’s womb. The opera ends with a hymn to victory sung by bards, soldiers, and Scottish women.

Provided by Wikipedia - Macbeth (opera)

Additional information

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  • Schedule for Giuseppe Verdi "Macbeth" opera in four acts (сoncert performance) 2022


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