Singer

Verdi's relationship with Shakespeare's theater unfolds over the course of a long career studded with completed projects, such as Macbeth, Othello and Falstaff and others long pursued but never realized, such as Hamlet, The Tempest, King Lear . The first opportunity to try his hand at a subject by the English playwright came thanks to Alessandro Lanari, impresario of the Teatro della Pergola in Florence, who commissioned the composer to write a new opera for the 1847 Carnival season.

Macbeth

Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Theatre

Judgement Day: drums roar, trumpets blast, and hundreds of voices cry to heaven. Arguably no composer had a deeper understanding of the human heart, or a more potent sense of drama, than Giuseppe Verdi. Blazing with emotion and conceived on the grandest possible scale, Verdi’s Requiem has been described as the greatest opera he never wrote. It’s raw sonic theatre, and 150 years after its first performance, our Chief Conductor Ryan Wigglesworth has assembled the Edinburgh Festival Chorus, the BBC SSO and a stellar team of solo singers – all ready to storm the ramparts of death itself.

Verdi’s Requiem in Edinburgh

The Usher Hall

EPSG:4326

Verdi’s Requiem

Glasgow City Hall

Sicily, 1900. A beautiful place with a passionate underbelly. The perfect setting for Pietro Mascagni’s legendary Cavalleria rusticana, a compelling story of love and betrayal. Turiddu and Lola have happily rekindled their old love, but Lola’s husband finds out, and Santuzza feels betrayed, all with dire consequences. Conductor James Gaffigan brings an international reputation as an opera conductor, and he tells this tale with white-hot intensity. 

Opera in Concert: Cavalleria rusticana

Stifel Theatre

In 1857, Verdi was called on to write an opera for the San Carlo Theatre in Naples, and he immediately began his search for the perfect story. His initial idea was King Lear by Shakespeare, but the lack of time available forced him to fall back on a libretto by Scribe, Gustave III ou Le bal masqué, which had already been set to music by Auber and by Mercadante. The story was inspired by actual events from 1792; the assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden by one of his officers during a ball. The subject was undoubtedly controversial, the on-stage murder of a monarch would not pass unnoticed by the Neapolitan censors, who in fact imposed numerous cuts and modifications. But the writer was too fond of the 18th-century traits and the lively French-influenced style of his new opera to be able to accept, among the many requests, the moving of the action to the 12th century, where it would have been impossible “to find a princeling, a duke, a devil, even from the North, who had seen a little of the world and experienced the atmosphere of Louis XIV”. With its Neapolitan debut thus grounded, Un ballo in maschera was staged at the Apollo Theatre in Rome, where it was performed on 17 February 1859.

Tenor

Antonio Poli

Events

Upcoming events

12 - 24 May, 2026

Un ballo in maschera · Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino

21 - 30 Jun, 2026

La traviata · Teatro dell'Opera di Roma

Past events

12 - 19 Oct, 2025

Macbeth · Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino

Mar 24, 2024

Verdi’s Requiem in Edinburgh · BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Future and recently performed repertoire

Alfredo Germont in La traviata by Verdi

Teatro dell'Opera di Roma

Macduff in Macbeth by Verdi

Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino

Riccardo in Un ballo in maschera by Verdi

Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino

About

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