With this recording of Macbeth Opera Rara launches a series of five operas by Guiseppe Verdi. This may seem unusual repertoire from a company specialising in music by Mercadante and Pacini – composers whose works are virtually unknown. The operas in this series, however, present a similar problem. Given the fact that they are all popular, the public is actually applauding operas, which differ from Verdi’s originals. Macbeth, for example, was first produced in March 1847 but Verdi revised it substantially in 1865, leaving us with another version of the opera. In the 1847 version presented here the innovative aspects of the opera stand out much more clearly than in the 1865 version. This version makes far heavier demands on the two principals, and though it could be argued that the music ranks below that of the revision, it is much more consistent in style. The opera is accompanied by a 176-page booklet in four languages, Italian, German, English and French, with an introduction by the former Producer and Verdi Scholar Julian Budden.