Macbeth by Giuseppe Verdi

Even today, 400 years after William Shakespeare’s death, his works continue to delight readers, inspire poets, and enthrall theatergoers. The “Bard of Avon” was an actor, director, and businessman, as well as a poet and playwright. He wrote 37 plays, 154 sonnets, and 2 epic poems. In between all that, he found time to act in his plays and direct them, and he also owned and managed the theater where the plays were performed. What’s REALLY amazing, though, is that he managed to accomplish all of this in a relatively short lifetime: just 52 years.

How did he do it? How could someone continue to come up with such startlingly original material - of such consistently high quality - without ever seeming to break a sweat?

Well, the truth is that much of what Shakespeare wrote was neither original nor consistent. At least the plays weren’t. Scholars will tell you that only a handful of his 37 plays were not based on someone else’s work. The truth is, the old bard often adapted stories wholesale from writers who were as famous in their time as Shakespeare has become in our own.

Take Plutarch. Shakespeare did. In fact, he took a minor incident from Plutarch’s Life of Marcus Antonius and turned it into a hit play called Timon of Athens. While he was at it, he took a major incident from the same book and turned it into Antony and Cleopatra. Those plays worked so well that Shakespeare started to consult Plutarch whenever he needed a new idea for a play. That’s where he got Coriolanus and Julius Caesar, among others.

Myths and legends were as popular in Shakespeare’s time as they are today, and they provided source materials for two of his most popular tragedies. King Lear is based on a story in a pseudo-historical chronicle called “The History of the Kings of Britain,” first published in 1135. And Hamlet - which is often called the perfect play - is based on an obscure Scandinavian legend as old as Beowulf.

Of course, some of Shakespeare’s works are based on true stories. There are the “historical” plays, as well as Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra. But, did you know that the character of Falstaff in The Merry Wives of Windsor was a real person as well? And so was the title character in MacBeth.

OK, stop. Don’t click that e-mail icon; there’s no need to send us a nasty electronic missive. While it’s true that Shakespeare DID draw on a number of existing stories, myths, and legends as the subjects of his plays, nobody here has forgotten that it was Shakespeare himself who wrote the unthinkably beautiful prose and poetry on which his reputation and popularity stand. Actually, his writing was so inspired that most of the writers who originated those stories are remembered now only because they provided source material for Shakespeare. It was Shakespeare who gave those stories the legacy they enjoy today.

Look at this week’s opera, Macbeth. It was not the historical “Chronicles of Holinshed” that Giuseppe Verdi consulted for the story of his opera. It was Shakespeare’s version of this true-life story - a play Verdi called, “one of mankind’s greatest creations.” As for the story itself, it’s good enough to have become one of Shakespeare’s finest plays, and one of Verdi’s finest operas. In both cases, that’s really saying something, and you can find out why this week on At the Opera, with Lou Santacroce.

Lou will discuss the historical Macbeth with an expert on Scottish history. Then, Will Berger will explain why Shakespeare’s famously spooky witches seem a little less scary in Verdi’s version - something to do with Italians, he says. And Thomson Smillie will discuss the musical insights Verdi brings to the Bard. Then, stay tuned for NPR World of Opera with Steve Curwood, and a production of Macbeth from Houston Grand Opera.

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