For his 10th opera, Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi adapted Shakespeare’s epic tragedy “Macbeth” to produce an equally stormy drama, replete with political power grabs, paranoia, witches and ghosts. While Shakespeare’s work was loosely based on the story of a Scottish nobleman in 11th century Scotland who fought to become king — as taken from historian Raphael Holinshed’s book “Chronicles” — Verdi was storied to have been drawn to “Macbeth” for its resonance with Italy’s own brewing revolution, the Risorgimento.
Hunger for power was a theme that transcended more than two centuries between Shakespeare, who wrote “Macbeth” in 1606, and Verdi, who composed his opera in 1847. Now, nearly two more centuries have passed, and the story “still resonates today,” said Tomer Zvulun, Atlanta Opera general and artistic director.
