Opera Scotland

Macbeth 1947Glyndebourne Opera

Read more about the opera Macbeth

Verdi's Macbeth took a long time to gain acceptance in Britain, and Glyndebourne was the driving force behind that development, with a production mounted in 1938 and revived the following year. This further revival featured the same soprano and baritone in the leading roles. These nine performances formed its Scottish premiere, something that coincided with the centenary of its Florence debut.

Berthold Goldschmidt, who conducted, is now remembered as an excellent composer who, like many who came to Britain to escape persecution, had a long struggle to become established. His opera Beatrice Cenci, commissioned for the Festival of Britain in 1951, had to wait for its first staging until 1994, and that was in Germany.

Margherita Grandi, who sang Lady Macbeth, was an excellent Australian-born dramatic soprano who spent most of her life on the continent, first in France, then Italy, but did important work at Glyndebourne and Covent Garden in the years before and after the war. Sir George Christie makes a notable, and rather rare, non-speaking appearance on stage as Fleance in the scene of Banquo's murder.

Cast details are from the Glyndebourne archive website - they have no data to confirm who sang Banquo at the four performances on 2, 6, 10 or 12 Sep. The nine performances of Macbeth alternated with nine performances of Le nozze di Figaro in which Tajo was singing Figaro and Brannigan Bartolo - so both men were working quite hard throughout the festival.