We’re happy to share that this week rehearsals began for the performance of “Macbeth” by Giuseppe Verdi: an opera about power, guilt and the destructive force of ambition.
Verdi’s score and Shakespeare’s tragedy meet in this new take on the performance by Vera Petrova.
The premiere performances will take place on the 25th, 26th, 27th and 28th of February and on the 1st of March.
Conductor: Alessandro D’Agostini; scenography and costumes: Maria Koleva; choir conductor: Violeta Dimitrova; assistant-director: Vera Beleva.
Starring: Macbeth – Biser Georgiev, Ventseslav Anastasov; Banko – Svetozar Rangelov, Petar Buchkov, Nikolay Voinov; Lady Macbeth – Alessandra di Giorgio, Gabriela Georgieva, Radostina Nikolaeva, Liliya Kehayova; Lady of honor – Ivanka Ninova, Daniela Panchevska; McDuff – Daniel Damyanov, Emil Pavlov, Georgi Sultanov, Rosen Nenchev; Malcolm – Hrisimir Damyanov; Doctor – Angel Hristov, Nikolai Petrov; Gatekeeper – Nikolai Pavlov; Macbeth’s servant – Anton Andreev; Hired assassin – Stefan Vladimirov.
With the participation of the Sofia Opera orchestra and choir.
“Macbeth” holds a special place in Verdi’s legacy with its dramaturgy, the choir’s exceptional role and its masterfully created protagonists and their psychology. This is the composer’s first opera based on a title by William Shakespeare; the libretto author is Francesco-Maria Piave, with additions by Andrea Maffei. “Macbeth” has two edits: an Italian and a French one. The composer himself defines the work as key to his own development where the score serves the dramaturgy in a direct way.
The opera first premiered on the 14th of March, 1847, in Florence. Verdi dedicated “Macbeth” to his friend and benefactor Antonio Barezzi, father of his first wife.
