Music

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 Macbeth as suitable subjects for operas, Giuseppe Verdi started writing the music for Macbeth in 1846 after receiving a commission from Florence's Teatro della Pergola and an assurance that certain singers would be available, especially the baritone, Felice Varesi. (Maffei was already writing a libretto for I masnadieri, which was based on the suggested Schiller play. Due to various complications, including Verdi's illness, it was not to receive its premiere until July 1867).

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 first performance of the opera, although he had read Shakespeare in translation for many years, as he noted in a 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". In spite of disagreements and Verdi's need to be constantly correcting Piave's 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), 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. 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.

In 1864 Verdi was asked to provide additional music - a ballet and a final chorus - for a production at the Théâtre Lyrique (Théâtre-Lyrique Impérial du Châtelet) in Paris. Initially thinking these additions were all that was needed, he realized that an overhaul of the opera was required. Advising the impresario of the Lyrique that more time was needed, he took the opportunity to revise the entire opera, in particular by adding music for Macbeth and Lady Macbeth in Acts 1 and 3; the addition of a ballet in Act 3; and changing the endings of Acts 3 and 4, in the latter case by dropping Macbeth's aria Mal per me che m'affidai - "Trusting in the prophesies of Hell" and adding the triumphal choral ending.

Once again Piave was called into service and the new version was first performed on April 21, 1865. Overall, the first performance was poorly received, something which puzzled the composer: "I thought I had done quite well with it...it appears I was mistaken".

It remains the preferred version for modern performances.