There’s a French version of Verdi’s Macbeth dating from 1865 and based on the 1847 Italian version. It was performed at the Verdi festival in Parma in 2024 and recorded for video. It’s not enormously different from the original though, unsurprisingly, there’s more ballet (at the beginning of Act 3). The ending is just as weirdly abrupt at least (*). In 1847 this was a transitional work with Verdi moving away from bel canto but here’s there’s still lots of rather jolly music accompanying either sinister or bloody scenes. By 1865 that must have sounded a bit odd.
operaramblings 