I have had him in my hands from my earliest youth, and I read and reread him continually.” Verdi’s devotion to Shakespeare is evident in his choice of Shakespearean plots for several of his operas. He wrote, “He is one of my favorite poets. Verdi didn’t speak English his passion for the Bard of Avon developed from reading Italian prose translations of the plays.

The choice of Macbeth was the first manifestation on the stage of Verdi’s fascination with Renaissance British playwright William Shakespeare. In Verdi’s mind, the role of Macbeth required a baritone had a stellar tenor been available instead, he would have pursued a different subject altogether.

Verdi had several possible subjects in mind for this commission, but soon dedicated himself to Macbeth because of the availability for the project of Felice Varesi, a baritone of remarkable vocal, dramatic and intellectual abilities. The opera for Florence, set to premiere in March 1847, would be Verdi’s 10th composition for the opera stage. Since the triumph of his 3rd opera, Nabucco, three years previously, Verdi had become a composer over whom opera companies vied, and they had kept him busy. In 1846, the manager of the Teatro della Pergola in Florence commissioned 33-year-old Giuseppe Verdi to create an opera on a topic of his own choice.

Verdi opera life and death