Verdi: Macbeth - The complete Ballet Music

For his reworking of Macbeth (the original version had been performed
at the Teatro alla Pergola in Florence on March 14, 1847), Verdi composed
a rather extensive three-movement ballet score for the second scene of
the third act, illustrating the Hecate scenes of Shakespeare’s drama. At
the premiere in the Théâtre-Lyrique in Paris on April 21, 1865, however,
the audience was less than enthusiastic – the drama was too much
at odds with the dance tastes of the Second Empire, which favoured
lightweight, virtuoso diversions. Verdi, however, was convinced by the
concept and insisted on retaining it in the new Italian production in Milan
(1874), which met with unexpected success.