The witches and the witch: Verdi's Macbeth

Daniel Albright

doi:10.1017/s0954586706002059

Abstract

The witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth equivocate between the demons of random malevolence and ordinary (if exceptionally nasty) old women; and both King James I, whose book on witchcraft may have influenced Shakespeare, and A. W. Schlegel, whose essay on Macbeth certainly influenced Verdi, also stress this ambiguity. In his treatment of Lady Macbeth, Verdi uses certain musical patterns associated with the witches; and like the witches, who sound sometimes tame and frivolous, sometimes like incarnations of supernatural evil, Lady Macbeth hovers insecurely between roles: she is a hybrid of ambitious wife and agent of hell.

Highlights

The witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth equivocate between the demons of random malevolence and ordinary old women; and both King James I, whose book on witchcraft may have influenced Shakespeare, and A
When I was a boy I often attended a comedy club in Chicago called Second City, in which the actors asked the audience to call out suggestions for a skit (‘Peeling an apple with a chainsaw!’ ‘An astronaut in a spacesuit peeling an apple with a chainsaw!’)
If the witches in Macbeth were continuously present at the margins of the stage, like Christopher Sly in many productions of The Taming of the Shrew, the director would have to show them growing more and more giddy with delight