Verdi versus Shakespeare
Anthony Tommasini has written a very interesting article for today’s New York Times that’s inspired by “dueling” productions of Macbeth in New York City: Shakespeare’s at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and Verdi’s at the Metropolitan Opera
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/09/arts/music/09macb.html?
Since I’m both a Verdian and a Trekkie (the Shakespeare stars Patrick Stewart, a.k.a. Capt. Jean-Luc Picard), I’m somewhat torn. But Tommasini gets it right: Verdi’s three Shakespearean operas, Macbeth (1847/65), Otello (1887), and Falstaff (1893) make the most of the naturally “musical” elements in the plays, but they go one step further by providing a depth of characterization that can’t be achieved by mere words, even those of the greatest playwright of the English language.