Ultimate Destruction Verdi's 'Macbeth' - reviewed by ROBERT ANDERSON '... much excitement ...'

When planning his Macbeth, Verdi decided on shipping witches galore to the Moray Firth coast. There, in this Barcelona production filmed for Opus Arte, they gleefully perform their Shakespearian duties, prophesying respective futures for Macbeth and Banquo, and brewing their mysterious hell-broth towards the ultimate destruction of Macbeth (as a schoolboy I once squeaked the part of the Bloody Babe). That is not all. A supernumerary witch aids the escape of Fleance from the grip of assassins, thus securing the sequence of Scottish kings and ultimately the accession of our own dear Queen. In the banquet scene another witch obligingly proffers Macbeth the royal crown. Here they exult over prophecies soon to be fulfilled [watch and listen -- 'Chorus of Witches' (Act 1), DVD1 chapter 5, 0:27-1:11].

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