"And How Would Sir Like His Macbeth"?

I am currently listening to some gorgeous music - Macbeth the opera, by Verdi.
Instead of 3 witches he has about 30!, divided into 3 groups of 10.

The fact that I'm enjoying this format of the story so much has prompted me to think about the merits of one format versus another.

Shakespeare's original has immortal language in it, and, if properly produced and performed, takes us into the deep, dark places of the psyche that Hitchcock had to use other stories to do.

However, Polanski chose to do a movie version, and I remember seeing this as a secondary student and thinking how cool all the gory, bloody bits were.

Then there was the physical theatre version Kerry L produced at O.C. a few years ago, reducing the story to a 20 minute stretch, but still packing it with dramatic force and pathos.

Verdi's opera, as do all effective operas, transfers every sentence, every gesture into music, transcending words and guiding the listener's psyche in a way that good soundtracks do in movies - this is the strength, and also the silliness of opera - it is one thing to suspend one's disbelief for the sake of a good play - we know it's not real, but we become enthralled by the conviction of the actors, the realism of set - but to go to the extreme of thinking that warriors, tyrants, witches and ghosts SING as they conduct their business - well, that's just toooo much, innit?

I say no - I love opera, love writing it, listening to it, performing it, AND I love the play, AND the movie - one is not better than the other (though I do thoroughly recommend the book version of Jesus Christ Superstar if you haven't yet tried it!).

So, I'm not going to choose a definitive version - in fact, if I get some time, I may even write a set of songs based on Macbeth (rock on, Macduff - wasn't he in ACDC??)...

Perhaps there's a Game Boy or Playstation version of it?

In the meantime, those adorable witches are calling me back - guess they put a spell on me!

BTW, Macbeth is probably one opera where the leading lady is required to be anything BUT sweet, beautiful, fulsome, etc.

And of course in the original play, her role would have been played by a MAN.

Viva Verdi!