The op­era about the no­ble­man Macbeth, who is ob­sessed with power, and his wife, Lady Macbeth, strong-willed and de­term­ined to re­main in con­trol, was Verdi’s first mu­sic­al com­pos­i­tion based on a Shakespeare drama. Dav­id Pount­ney, who is well known for his un­con­ven­tion­al sta­ging ideas, gives it a strong, con­cen­trated visu­al im­pact with over­tones that send the mind spin­ning in many dir­ec­tions. The power of su­per­sti­tion (or per­haps of the su­per­nat­ur­al) is one of this op­era's primary sub­texts, and it is presen­ted with eer­ie im­pact.

Also mu­sic­ally, this is an ex­em­plary per­form­ance. Thomas Hampson sings an ex­cep­tion­al Macbeth and Pao­letta Mar­ro­cu - vo­cally as well as dra­mat­ic­ally - seems to be born for this role. They are well sup­por­ted, most not­ably by Roberto Scan­duzzi as Banco, and Lu­is Lima as Mac­duff. Franz Welser-Most con­ducts the Or­ches­tra of the Zurich Op­era with a keen ear for dra­mat­ic ten­sion.

This spec­tac­u­lar fest­iv­al première of the Op­era House Zurich has been pub­lished on DVD and in­cludes elab­or­ated in­ter­views with Dav­id Pount­ney, Franz Welser-Möst and the key cast.