Macbeth

Verdi meets Shakespeare for a bloody showdown of power and greed. Power’s price, paid in blood.

Massive ensembles. White hot arias. The dark recesses of the mind. Verdi’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s smoldering tragedy is a riveting exploration of power, corruption, and freedom. Fresh off the success of Romeo and Juliet in our 2023–2024 season, Washington National Opera brings the Bard’s historical epic back for the first time in 17 years.

Meet opera’s most power-hungry couple: Macbeth and his Lady. When they’re caught in a murderous plot to claim the Scottish throne, their manic greed for control has no end. Verdi wrote this powerhouse during Italy’s independence movement, and it soars with themes of political corruption, tyrannical rule, and liberation of the people.

Macbeth takes audiences through a gripping tale of ambition and scandal, from the first note to the spectacular closing chorus. As the chilling finale approaches, ghosts of the past lurk in the shadows. Power unchecked comes at a cost; what can stop its bloody path of destruction?

Music by Giuseppe Verdi / Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave and Andrea Maffei after William Shakespeare’s play

In Italian with Projected English Titles
Composed 1847–1865