Les Arts premieres Verdi's 'Macbeth', with Michele Mariotti conducting and Benedict Andrews directing, and featuring a distinguished cast

• Baritones Luca Salsi and George Gagnidze perform the role of the Scottish nobleman with soprano Anna Pirozzi as Lady Macbeth

• Les Arts will stream the final performance of this opera to various municipalities and musical societies in the Valencian Community

Valencia (28.3.22). The Palau de les Arts will premiere 'Macbeth' by Giuseppe Verdi on March 31, with musical direction by Michele Mariotti and stage direction by Benedict Andrews.

Jesús Iglesias Noriega, artistic director of Les Arts, presented this production at a press conference today, accompanied by its two directors, Michele Mariotti and Benedict Andrews, and by the main performers, baritone Luca Salsi and soprano Anna Pirozzi.

“Starting with a masterpiece like 'Macbeth', Verdi created one of his great operas. Composed during his 'galley years', it would be a prelude to landmark successes such as 'Rigoletto', 'Il trovatore' and 'La traviata', as well as a precursor to his other celebrated Shakespearean operas 'Falstaff' and 'Otello',” notes the artistic director of Les Arts.

“Our aim is to seek out actions, collaborations, and initiatives so that everyone can find their place at Les Arts. That's why today, as part of our cross-cutting proposal for 'Macbeth', we've come to the Public Library of Valencia to highlight the many connections that allow us to create a genre like opera, and I want to thank its director, Romà Seguí, for his hospitality.”

Michele Mariotti, one of the great Verdi conductors, with work in the leading theaters on the international circuit, makes his debut with 'Macbeth' at Les Arts. Currently the music director of the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, he has successfully conducted Rossini's 'La Cenerentola' at Les Arts, as well as a symphonic-choral concert with the Cor de la Generalitat and the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana.

According to the director of Pesaro, in his first foray into this opera he has sought to show with the stable bodies of Les Arts the colors, the environments, the darkness and corruptions in which Verdi's adaptation of the Shakespearean tragedy is immersed.

Benedict Andrews directs this Royal Danish Opera production, with set design by Ashley Martin-Davis, costumes by Victoria Behr, lighting by Jon Clark and choreographic movement direction by Ran Braun.

“Verdi has written an immense, powerful, harsh, and erotically charged drama about desire and need. He follows the protagonists all the way to the abyss, in the same way as Shakespeare, but in the opera we can feel that there is a kind of colossus in the music, and perhaps that is what Verdi really adds: his sense of destiny. That great interest in destiny is what Verdi brings to 'Macbeth',” the director explains.

Les Arts presents an exceptional cast for the premiere of this work, with Luca Salsi in the leading role, which he performs in Valencia after opening the opera season with it at La Scala in Milan, and later singing it at the Vienna Opera.

Acclaimed for his performances in Verdi and verismo opera, the Italian baritone is an internationally renowned singer who has performed at, among others, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Salzburg Festival, the Paris Opera and the Bayerische Staatsoper.

Luca Salsi will portray the Scottish nobleman on March 31, April 3, and April 10. Meanwhile, Georgian tenor George Gagnidze, another essential name in the casts of Verdi's opera at major theaters, will sing Macbeth on April 5 and 8.

After her resounding success in the daunting role of Abigaille in 'Nabucco' in 2015 and 2019, Anna Pirozzi, one of today's most sought-after sopranos, returns to Les Arts. The Neapolitan diva presents another of Verdi's most complex and demanding roles, Lady Macbeth, with which she has already garnered undeniable acclaim at the Vienna State Opera and London's Covent Garden.

Croatian bass-baritone Marko Mimica (Banco) and young Italian tenor Giovanni Sala (Macduff) complete the main roles in this cast, which also includes: Rosa Dávila (Lady Macbeth's Dame), Jorge Franco (Malcom), Luis López Navarro (Doctor/Hitman), Marcelo Solís (Domestic) and Juan Felipe Durá (Araldo).

Young audience

Performances of Verdi's 'Macbeth' benefit from the new affordable pricing policy for those under 35, with a 50% discount on all seats.

'Macbeth' on streaming 

As Iglesias Noriega explained, 'Macbeth', in addition to being one of the artistic cornerstones of the season, is also the backbone of the 'Verdi Marathon', a cross-cutting and regional calendar of concerts, recitals, opera, talks, film, workshops and gastronomy around the composer from Busseto and his first foray into the work of William Shakespeare.

As part of its commitment to developing accessible programming for the entire region, Les Arts will close the cycle of performances of 'Macbeth' on April 10 with a free streaming broadcast of Verdi's opera, for the municipalities and musical societies of the Valencian Community that have requested it.

This initiative, which concludes the activities of the 'Verdi Marathon', is carried out within the collaborative actions that the opera house develops with Turisme de la Comunitat Valenciana.