Macbeth is a tale of power, superstition, and political intrigue driven by the title character and his scheming wife, whose fascinating, highly charged relationship finds rich depiction in Verdi’s ominous score. The opera highlights the ferocious royal couple’s ruthlessness in sinuously menacing music and also contains some of Verdi’s most stirring choral writing. Macbeth is Verdi’s first Shakespearean adaptation, which he wrote early in his career but returned to revise almost 20 years later, a clear indication that even at the height of his success and artistic powers, the composer considered this score to be an essential part of his oeuvre.