On Sunday 12 October at 5 pm, Giuseppe Verdi's Macbeth will be staged for the first time in the theatre's Sala Grande.

Conducting the Maggio Orchestra and Chorus will be maestro Alexander Soddy.

Verdi's masterpiece is presented with staging and direction by Mario Martone and sets designed by Mimmo Paladino.

On stage, in the leading roles, Luca Salsi is Macbeth; Vanessa Goikoetxea plays Lady Macbeth; Antonio Di Matteo plays Banquo and Antonio Poli is Macduff.

New production

Florence, 3 October 2025 – Following the success of Les pêcheurs de perles, the autumn season of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino will present Giuseppe Verdi's masterpiece Macbeth, based on William Shakespeare's tragedy of the same name, from Sunday 12 October 2025 at 5 p.m.

Three more performances are scheduled: on 14 and 17 October at 8 p.m. and on 19 October at 3.30 p.m.

This staging is the 21st of the title in Florence, whose history began with La Città, at the Teatro della Pergola, on 14 March 1847, where it was performed for the first time ever. The first performance at the Comunale was in May 1951 with Vittorio Gui conducting, followed by six other productions of the title: in 1969, 1975, 1995, 2002, 2013, and the last one - in concert form - at the Teatro del Maggio Fiorentino, conducted by Riccardo Muti in 2018.

On the podium of the Sala Grande del Teatro is maestro Alexander Soddy, who returns to conduct the Maggio Orchestra and Choir after the performances of Strauss' Salome, which opened the 87th Maggio Festival and marked his Florentine debut.

The staging and direction of the show are by Mario Martone, while the sets are designed by Mimmo Paladino, who has also created a true work of art for Macbeth and for the Maggio: the majestic, enormous curtain painted on wood, inspired by the fresco “Il Trionfo della morte” (The Triumph of Death) in Palazzo Abattellis in Palermo.

The set designer is Barbara Bessi, the costumes are by Ursula Patzak, lighting and video are by Pasquale Mari, and Alessandro Papa is the video designer. The choreography is by Raffaella Giordano. The choir master of the Maggio is Lorenzo Fratini.

The vocal cast includes Luca Salsi as Macbeth, Vanessa Goikoetxea as Lady Macbeth, Antonio Di Matteo in the role of Banco, making his Maggio debut, and Antonio Poli in the role of Macduff. Elizaveta Shuvalova is Lady Macbeth's Lady-in-Waiting, Lorenzo Martelli plays Malcolm, Huigang Liu is a Doctor; Egidio Massimo Naccarato is a Servant and Lisandro Guinis is an Assassin, while Dielli Hoxha and Nicolò Ayroldi are respectively a Herald and the First Apparition.

Aurora Spinelli and Caterina Pacchi complete the cast as the Second Apparition and the Third Apparition.

“ I am really proud to return to Florence after Salome and the concert I conducted during the 87th Maggio Festival,‘ says Alexander Soddy. ’Coming back here and doing so conducting Giuseppe Verdi's Macbeth makes it even more special: I grew up with William Shakespeare's plays, and Macbeth is truly a perfect example of a tragedy marked by chiaroscuro, and the music Verdi built around it is absolutely wonderful. It is characterised by aspects that we could almost describe as “extreme”, and the energetic imprint of the young Verdi can be heard crystal clear. In this production, we are fortunate to have a truly extraordinary cast who, together with this magnificent orchestra and choir conducted by Maestro Fratini, are able to convey to the audience all the colours and nuances present in Verdi's score. I think Luca Salsi is currently the best Macbeth in the world and it is a real pleasure to be able to work alongside him. Vanessa Goikoetxea, who plays Lady Macbeth – in my opinion one of Verdi's most difficult and extreme roles – is truly exceptional in her vocal and theatrical rendition of this complex part. Finally, I would like to emphasise how stimulating it is to be able to work with Mario Martone, who immediately understood and conveyed the depth of this drama perfectly on stage.

Director Mario Martone – who made his debut at the Maggio in April 2007 directing Antigone with music by Ivan Fedele – highlighted the most important aspects of his Macbeth: 'On the one hand, this show is an inner journey into the psyche of a man and his wife, into the obsessive and unfulfilled relationship that binds them inextricably; on the other, it is a theatrical manifestation of the forces that manipulate them, and manipulate us, through the presence of the witches. We believe we are free, but the forces that drive our actions are innumerable, and come from both within and without. The outside world is only manifested at one moment in Verdi's Macbeth, the only one in which we leave the royal palace, an opening in which a suffering humanity appears, battered by the violence of war and the criminal stupidity of power. The psyche of those who govern is often particularly exposed to the sadistic and mocking actions of witches, and it is countless human beings around the world who pay the price. We live in a time when this is unfortunately very evident.

Luca Salsi, who returns to Maggio after Otello, staged in spring 2023 and conducted by Zubin Mehta, spoke of his joy at returning to Florence and doing so by giving voice to one of his favourite characters, Macbeth, whom he has played twice before in Florence during his career: 'Macbeth is definitely one of the operas I love most and which best represents me. I have performed it about 150 times during my career and here in Florence I have sung it on two occasions: in 2018 under the baton of Maestro Muti and in 2013, on the occasion of Verdi's bicentenary, under the baton of James Conlon. I really love the character of Macbeth, a truly complex role both vocally and dramatically: in this production, however, I am greatly helped by Mario Martone, with whom I already had the opportunity to work on Andrea Chénier at La Scala in December 2017. Working with him is always stimulating, he always has lively ideas that are never banal, because the complex thing about this work is the risk – always high – of crossing the line into exaggeration.

Here, however, a lot of work has been done on the characters' personalities, and this is very much in keeping with the essence of Verdi's work. This is really important to me because I love challenging roles from an acting point of view: it allows me to delve into the character's emotions, and this really makes a big difference between a simple vocal interpretation of a role and an interpretation that is effective above all on a communicative level, even more so in a Shakespearean libretto like Macbeth. Finally, I am really happy to be working with Maestro Soddy for the first time: he is a very talented conductor with precise and brilliant ideas'.

Vanessa Goikoetxea, who returns to Maggio after the success of her performances in Tosca in May 2024, which marked her Florentine debut, emphasised her satisfaction at making her debut in a Verdi role for the first time in her career: 'Lady Macbeth is undoubtedly a complex role, both from a vocal and acting point of view; she is a woman with a very complex psychology. While on the one hand she can undoubtedly be described as a cruel character, on the other hand we can also focus on another, less obvious aspect: she truly loves Macbeth, even if, of course, her thirst for power will prevail over this sentimental side. The duplicity of her soul naturally makes her complex to analyse and interpret. I am very excited and stimulated to know that this is the first Verdi opera I have tackled in my career, and I was really struck by how he portrayed Lady Macbeth: every single aspect of the story told on stage can be found in the music itself. Verdi, as Puccini would later do, has this extraordinary ability to tell the story – or rather, the drama – almost exclusively through music and notes, which contain within them the heart and soul of Shakespeare's story.

This is the first time I have worked with Maestro Soddy: a truly formidable musician who has helped me find every nuance and every colour in this complex role. This opera tells its story not only through music and plot, but also and above all through the expressiveness of individual words. Finally, I am really happy to be making my debut in a role like this alongside an artist such as Luca Salsi, who is a leading Verdi interpreter of enormous talent.