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Macbeth Synopsis ACT I Scene 1. A Scottish wood Returning from a victory, Macbeth is greeted by witches who hail him as Thane of Cawdor and future king. They hail his companion Banquo as the ancestor of a line of kings. Macbeth broods over their prophecy. Scene 2. A hall in Macbeth's castle Lady Macbeth reads a letter from Macbeth and eagerly awaits his return so that she can strengthen his resolve to obtain the crown. She greets him with the news that King Duncan intends to pass the night at the castle, and easily convinces him to murder the king. On his way to commit the murder, Macbeth has a hallucination. Stricken with terror, he is unable to return the dagger he has brought with him. Lady Macbeth returns it and tells him to wash his hands and assume an appearance of innocence. Macduff and Banquo arrive and discover the murdered king. Macduff's announcement of the murder provokes horror and cries to heaven for vengeance from all, including Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. BLISS on 19th Dramatika Ad 4 ACT II Scene 1. A room in Macbeth's castle Macbeth confesses to his wife that he is brooding over the witches' prophecy that Banquo's descendants will be kings, and resolves to have him killed. Lady Macbeth exults that their claim to the throne will soon be unchallenged, even if at the cost of more killing. Scene 2. A park outside Macbeth's castle Banquo's forebodings are fulfilled when he is set upon and killed, but his son Fleance escapes. Scene 3. A hall in the castle At a banquet one of the murderers reports that Banquo has been killed. Macbeth, about to take his seat, is confronted by Banquo's ghost, which only he can see. The guests are puzzled by his horror, but he recovers when the ghost vanishes. The ghost reappears and Macbeth's terror arouses the suspicions of the guests. Macduff decides to flee and Macbeth resolves to visit the witches again. ACT III. A dark cavern The witches prepare a brew. Macbeth appears and demands to know his fate. They summon up spirits which tell him first to beware of Macduff, but that he cannot be killed by anyone born of woman. He decides to spare Macduff, but changes his mind knowing that he cannot be killed until Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane. When he asks if Banquo's children will be kings, he is shown a vision of eight kings. Macbeth faints and the witches vanish. Lady Macbeth encourages him to kill Fleance and he tells her that he will also have Macduff and his family put to death. ACT IV Scene 1. Near the Scottish border The refugees who have fled Macbeth's tyranny lament the unhappy state of their homeland and Macduff bewails the death of his family. Malcolm orders the soldiers to take branches from Birnam Wood as camouflage and exhorts them to follow him to free Scotland. Scene 2. A room in Macbeth's castle Lady Macbeth walks in her sleep, reliving the murders and trying to wash the blood from her hands. Scene 3. A hall in Macbeth's castle Macbeth takes comfort from the prophecies.The news of his wife's death confirms his feelings about the futility of existence. When he learns that Birnam Wood is moving towards his castle, he realises the witches have deceived him. The battle rages. Macbeth learns that Macduff was not born naturally and is killed by him. Macduff hails Malcolm as king and the people join in thanksgiving. Join this group of fun-loving Oh! supporters! Bravissimo Social Club Amos Avidan & Susan Donnelly Ms. Claudia Bammel Jim & Rosalie Bates Dr. David C. & Lillian Bonner Mr. Ron C. Borschow Mr. Mike Chmiel John & Jeanette DiFilippo Dr. Alice Gates George B. Geary Ms. Dolores Goble Bill & Lucila Haase Ms May Holm Ms. Joyce Lehrfeld Ms. Marie Mansour Mr. & Mrs. Michael McKann Steven D. & Sue Merrill (Houston Piano Company) Mr. & Mrs. Ron Messner Mrs. Beverly J. Montgomery Ms. Jacqueline D. Mullis Ms. Emilee F. Peters Jim & Susie Pokorski Mr. & Mrs. Dana S. Robertson Mr. David Santana Ms. Ruth C. Stewart Dean & Marguerite Swanson Janardan & Linda Thakkar Ms. Doris Thomas Dr. & Mrs. Robert Toth Roger & Diana Van Duzer Dennis & Laura Virgadamo Joseph J. & Irene Waiter Ms. Andrea Watson Mr. & Mrs. Walter Weibel Dr. Elizabeth & Mr. Paul Winslow Mr. & Mrs. Kinjo Yonemoto 13
THE ARTS ENRICH OUR LIVES. Macbeth Edward Jones Ad Is your portfolio designed to do the same? At Edward Jones, we spend time getting to know your goals so we can help you reach them. To learn why it makes sense to talk with Edward Jones about your savings and investing strategies, schedule a no-cost, no-obligation portfolio review. Eclectic Home Ad The Play / The Opera by William M. Weibel Call or visit today. Shelley Baker 357 West 19th Street Houston, Texas 77008 (713) 861-3260 www.edwardjones.com Member SIPC Home Furnishings & Accessories Mon-Sat 10-6 Sun 1-5 713.869.1414 Of all the great composers who have adapted Shakespeare's plays to music, perhaps none was so successful as Giuseppe Verdi, who adapted three of Shakespeare’s plays for the operatic stage. In his capable hands, Othello, Macbeth, and The Merry Wives of Windsor received a new breath of life. By setting not only Shakespeare's words to music, but complete stories, Verdi gave audiences a new way to experience and appreciate these classic tales. In celebration of the linked careers of these two legends, and of Shakespeare's 445th birthday on April 23, Opera in the Heights presents two of the monumental works adapted by Verdi. soprano, a rare opera in which the tenor is really an afterthought. The great tenor aria is given to Macduff and it doesn't come until the last act. But Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are roles full of perverse charisma and high dramatic possibilities. Three attributes, bravery, ambition, and selfdoubt, struggle for mastery of Macbeth throughout the play. Shakespeare uses Macbeth to show the terrible effects that ambition and guilt can have on a man who lacks strength of character. We may classify Macbeth as irrevocably evil, but his weak character separates him from Shakespeare’s great villains. 12 In its original moment - the play was probably first performed in 1606 - Verdi shifted the focus of the whole drama to Lady Macbeth and created an opera that centers on the demonic intensity of her desire for power and her erotic domination of her husband. Verdi has almost no interest in the religious dimension of the story: Lady Macbeth's astonishing aria, upon receiving her husband's letter "Vieni! T'affretta!" conveys a sexualized delirium that fills the stage, taking the place of both the divine and the demonic. The deep fantasy of power is hers, in Verdi's vision, not her husband's, and one of the opera's greatest moments comes with lines that were taken from Macbeth—"Light thickens, and the crow/ Makes wing to th' rooky wood"—and given to her: "La luce langue." Verdi's Macbeth is generally considered the operatic equivalent of a B-movie. It is fun, and flawed, and full of premonitions of the great works of his middle career, which would begin only a few years later with masterpieces such as Luisa Miller and Rigoletto. Verdi accused himself of an essentially schoolboy vision when he wrote to his librettist, "If we can't make something great out of it, let us at least try and do something out of the ordinary. Macbeth is focused on its leading baritone and Lady Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s most famous and frightening female characters. When we first see her, she is already plotting Duncan’s murder, and she is stronger, more ruthless, and more ambitious than her husband. She seems fully aware of this and knows that she will have to push Macbeth into committing murder. At one point, she wishes that she were not a woman so that she could do it herself. This theme of the relationship between gender and power is key to Lady Macbeth’s character: her husband implies that she is a masculine soul inhabiting a female body. She manipulates her husband with remarkable effectiveness, overriding all his objections: when he hesitates to murder, she repeatedly questions his manhood until he feels that he must commit murder to prove himself. Lady Macbeth’s remarkable strength of will persists through the murder of the king. It is she who steadies her husband’s nerves immediately after the crime has been perpetrated. Afterward, however, she begins a slow slide into madness—just as ambition affects her more strongly than Macbeth before the crime, so does guilt plague her more strongly afterward. By the close of the play, she has been (Continued on page 9) 5
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