Macbeth: Libretto

A HEATH IN SCOTLAND:

Hecate and her servants, the Weird Sisters, meet and foresee the violent events surrounding the throne of Scotland. Macbeth encounters them in the midst of their ritualistic dance and they greet him as the future King of Scotland. Haunted by his own imagination and brimming both with passion and ambition, Macbeth internalizes their prophesy and struggles to suppress his violent will. 

MACBETH’S CASTLE:

When Macbeth returns home, his wife presses him to act; the two drive each other into a frenzy and resolve to murder King Duncan when he visits their castle. 

Indeed, King Duncan comes to visit their castle and the Macbeths treat him with benevolent hospitality. The Macbeths could still repent but they choose to continue down their path. In the night, driven further into their frenzy, they assassinate King Duncan.

The Macbeths are crowned as the sovereigns of Scotland but are plagued by their guilt. Macbeth cowers at a vision of the dead king while Lady Macbeth tries to maintain order. 

A HEATH IN SCOTLAND:

Macbeth visits the Weird Sisters, who, by Hecate's orders, give him false assurance. They foretell that he could only be defeated by a man “not of woman born” backed by the Forests of Dunshire; but they also show him a vision of future kings not of his bloodline.

MACBETH’S CASTLE:

Meanwhile, Lady Macbeth has fallen into madness and sleepwalks around her castle, obsessively trying to wash off King Duncan’s imagined blood from her hands and be absolved of her crime; she remains steadfast to her husband at all costs. However, she spirals further, her heart suppressed by guilt and she succumbs to death. Macbeth is overcome with grief and cannot recover; Prince Malcom and Macduff approach from a distance and Macbeth’s defeat is imminent.

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