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The season opens with hair-raising drama and spectacular singing as two of opera’s most extraordinary artists star in Macbeth, Verdi’s thrilling take on the immortal Shakespearean tale of the scheming couple determined to seize power at any cost. Following past triumphs in many of Verdi’s signature baritone roles, Quinn Kelsey is the Scottish king haunted by the ghosts of his murderous ascent to the throne, opposite Lise Davidsen— the world’s reigning dramatic soprano—as the power-mad Lady Macbeth, whose ruinous ambition damns them both. Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin takes the podium for a penetrating production by Louisa Proske, a brilliant young director making waves around the world. Rounding out the all-star cast are tenor Freddie De Tommaso as the heroic Macduff and bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green as Macbeth’s friend-turned-victim Banquo.

Please note that video cameras will be in operation during the October 14 and 17 performances, as part of The Met: Live in HD series of cinema transmissions.

For information about the audio description available for the October 11 performance of Macbeth, please contact [email protected]. 

Production a gift of The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation and Gwendolyn and Austin Fragomen

Production supported by Rolex

Additional support from the Hermione Foundation, Laura Sloate, Trustee

 

New Production

Sung In

Italian

Met Titles In

  • English
  • German
  • Spanish
  • Italian

Estimated Run Time

3 hrs

House Opens

Acts I and II

85 mins

Intermission

30 mins

Acts III and IV

65 mins

Opera Ends

Cast

See Full Cast

World Premiere: Teatro della Pergola, Florence, 1847. Revised version: Théâtre Lyrique, Paris, 1865. Verdi’s opera is a powerful musical interpretation of Shakespeare’s timeless drama of ambition and its personal cost. Raising questions of fate, superstition, guilt, and power, it marks an important step on the composer’s path from his more conventional earlier efforts to the integrated musical dramas of his mature years.

Creators

Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901) composed 26 operas during his 60 active years in the theater, at least half of which are at the core of today’s opera repertory. Francesco Maria Piave (1810–76), one of the two librettists for Macbeth, collaborated with the composer on ten works, while additional portions of the opera’s libretto were provided by Verdi’s friend Count Andrea Maffei (1798–1885), a cosmopolitan literary amateur who introduced the work of many great foreign writers, including those of Shakespeare (1564–1616), to Italians.

  • Giuseppe Verdi

    composer

    Giuseppe Verdi

Louisa Proske

Production

Louisa Proske

Jon Bausor

SET DESIGNER

Jon Bausor

Montana Levi Blanco

COSTUME DESIGNER

Montana Levi Blanco

Adam Silverman

LIGHTING DESIGNER

Adam Silverman

Jorrell Lawyer-Jefferson

CHOREOGRAPHER

Jorrell Lawyer-Jefferson

Ran Arthur Braun

Action Director

Ran Arthur Braun

Tilman Michael

C. Graham Berwind, III Chorus Director

Tilman Michael

Setting

The historical “Macbeth” (Mac Bethad mac Findlaích) was king of Alba from 1040 to his death in 1058, but Shakespeare departs so far from history that the facts are of little concern. This new production of Macbeth blends Elizabethan imagery with contemporary elements to explore the opera’s portrayal of an authoritarian ruler’s rise and its human cost.

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Music

The score of Macbeth features little of the melodic abundance that made Verdi famous. In fact, the composer went out of his way to avoid making this score too pretty, insisting that the drama was not served by lyricism. Lady Macbeth, as the true protagonist of the story, has the most commanding of the great solos, and her famous sleepwalking scene in Act IV is a study of guilt unlike any other.