Which Verdi opera is based on Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth?

Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Macbeth is based on William Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth.

Verdi’s Macbeth premiered at Florence’s Teatro della Pergola on 14 March 1847. Francesco Maria Piave wrote the libretto, with additional help from Andrea Maffei. The opera follows Shakespeare’s central chain of ambition, prophecy, murder, guilt, and political violence, while compressing and reshaping parts of the play for the operatic stage.

Verdi later revised the work for Paris, where a new version premiered in 1865. The revised edition added French grand-opera conventions, including a ballet, and changed several musical and dramatic details. Modern productions may use the 1847 version, the 1865 revision, or a combination.

Macbeth is not Verdi’s only Shakespeare adaptation. He later composed Otello and Falstaff, based on Shakespeare’s Othello and The Merry Wives of Windsor together with parts of Henry IV. Those titles are separate operas, not alternate names for Macbeth.