Read the two one-paragraph summaries. Shakespeare’s Scotland and Mozart’s Naples have rather different weather.
Four weeks, give or take
A modest preparation plan.
Nothing here is an exam. It is simply a way to arrive with a few familiar faces, sounds, and questions already in the room.
Try the Macbeth overture, the witches, and Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking scene.
Try “Come scoglio,” “Un’aura amorosa,” and the trio “Soave sia il vento.”
Notice how both operas make an ensemble into an argument. Then stop studying and look forward to the day.
I
Macbeth
Verdi takes Shakespeare’s tragedy and strips it to the nerve: prophecy, appetite, murder, and the private cost of getting what one thought one wanted.
The shape of it.
Macbeth and his wife hear a prophecy that makes the crown feel suddenly within reach. Their decision to force the future sets off a chain of violence that turns the castle inward: sleep no longer comes easily, guests become threats, and the dead make poor dinner companions.
Full plot, including the end
Macbeth murders King Duncan and takes the throne. Banquo’s ghost breaks into the coronation feast; Lady Macbeth collapses under guilt; opponents gather against him; and the prophecies prove cleverly, catastrophically double-edged. Macbeth dies in the final battle.
What to listen for.
- The witches: not misty atmosphere, but a chorus with a hard, unsettling rhythmic bite.
- Lady Macbeth: “Vieni! t’affretta!” is command; the sleepwalking scene, “Una macchia è qui tuttora,” is the bill arriving.
- The banquet: public ceremony unravelling in private terror. Watch how the people around Macbeth react before they understand why.
- “Patria oppressa”: Verdi broadens one man’s catastrophe into a wounded country.
A new Met production.
- Conductor
- Yannick Nézet-Séguin
- Macbeth
- Quinn Kelsey
- Lady Macbeth
- Lise Davidsen
- Macduff
- Freddie De Tommaso
- Banquo
- Ryan Speedo Green
A useful historical way in.
Start with the Met’s 1959 house premiere: Leonard Warren, Leonie Rysanek, Carlo Bergonzi, and Erich Leinsdorf. It gives you a grand old-fashioned Verdi frame before you encounter the new production.
II
Così fan tutte
Two young couples submit their confidence in love to a foolish wager. Mozart makes the joke gleam, then quietly asks whether any of them can return to being exactly who they were.
The shape of it.
Ferrando and Guglielmo accept Don Alfonso’s absurd challenge: they will test the fidelity of their fiancées, Fiordiligi and Dorabella, by pretending to go to war and returning in outlandish disguise. Despina, the women’s maid, helps the deception along with rather more practical wisdom than anyone else possesses.
What makes it more than a farce
The prank creates real feeling, and the music refuses to mock those feelings from a safe distance. By the end, the question is not merely who has been faithful; it is whether love can survive seeing itself without its flattering portrait.
What to listen and watch for.
- “Come scoglio”: Fiordiligi swears she is a rock. The heroic leaps and plunges make the declaration thrilling—and perhaps a touch overconfident.
- “Un’aura amorosa”: Ferrando’s long-breathed tenderness. Let Mozart take his time.
- “Soave sia il vento”: three voices and orchestra briefly create perfect stillness. Notice that the characters are not all feeling quite the same thing.
- The ensembles: the score keeps showing us several truths at once. Watch who is listening, who is performing, and who has already changed.
Coney Island, by way of Naples.
The Met’s Phelim McDermott production moves the comedy to a 1950s boardwalk amusement park—expect colour, spectacle, and a deliberately theatrical view of disguise.
- Conductor
- Nimrod David Pfeffer
- Fiordiligi
- Federica Lombardi
- Dorabella
- Samantha Hankey
- Despina
- Ana María Martínez
- Ferrando
- Duke Kim
- Guglielmo
- Andrey Zhilikhovsky
- Don Alfonso
- Gerald Finley
A useful historical way in.
For the production you will see, seek out the Met’s 2018 opening-night broadcast: David Robertson conducting Amanda Majeski, Ben Bliss, Serena Malfi, Adam Plachetka, Kelli O’Hara, and Christopher Maltman. For a contrasting audio tradition, the 1990 Levine performance with Carol Vaness, Tatiana Troyanos, Jerry Hadley, and Thomas Hampson is a fine landmark.
2018 production record ↗1990 performance record ↗Hear 1990 audio clips ↗
Where to go next.
They are the current source for casts, curtain times, production notes, and any last-minute changes.
Met Opera Radio is available around the clock. The app does not provide stable deep links to historic broadcasts, so use the performer and date in this guide when browsing the schedule or making a request.
The Met’s Così educator guide is unusually good on the score, its vocal writing, and how the ensembles carry the drama.
The Met’s discussion with Kelli O’Hara, Christopher Maltman, David Robertson, and Phelim McDermott is a very good introduction to the production you will see. The Met Guild archive is there for further rabbit holes.
At the curtain
You do not need to catch every word.
Read the titles when you want them; look up when the music pulls you away. In both operas, the emotional information arrives in the sound before the plot explains itself.