What is "macbeth"

masc. proper name, Gaelic, literally "son of life." The first reference to bad luck associated with Shakespeare's "Macbeth," and to avoidance of naming it, is from 1896, alludes to an incident of 1885, and says the tradition goes back "so far as modern memory can recall." The original superstition seems to have pertained particularly to the witches' scenes, which were played up dramatically in 19c. productions, and especially to Matthew Locke's 17c. music to accompany the witches' song, which was regularly played through the 19th century.\n\nIt is strange how the effect of this music has exerted such a long surviving influence on members of the dramatic profession. It is still considered most unlucky to sing, hum, or whistle the witch airs in the theatre except in the ways of business. [Young-Stewart, "The Three Witches," in "The Shakespearean," Sept. 15, 1896]\n

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\nIf you number an actor or actress among your friends, and desire to retain his or her friendship, there are three things you positively must not do, especially if the actor is of the old school. Do not whistle in the theatre, do not look over his shoulder into the glass while he is making up, and do not hum the witch's song from "Macbeth." ... [O]lder actors would almost prefer to lose their salary than go on in "Macbeth" on account of this song. They believe that it casts spells upon the members of the company.

["Some Odd Superstitions of the Stage," "Theatre" magazine, July 1909]

Macbeth (; full title The Tragedy of Macbeth) is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, thought to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those who seek power for its own sake. Of all the plays that Shakespeare wrote during the reign of James I, who was patron of Shakespeare's acting company, Macbeth most clearly reflects the playwright's relationship with his sovereign. It was first published in the Folio of 1623, possibly from a prompt book, and is his shortest tragedy.

A brave Scottish general named Macbeth receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders King Duncan and takes the Scottish throne for himself. He is then wracked with guilt and paranoia. Forced to commit more and more murders to protect himself from enmity and suspicion, he soon becomes a tyrannical ruler. The bloodbath and consequent civil war swiftly take Macbeth and Lady Macbeth into the realms of madness and death.

Shakespeare's source for the story is the account of Macbeth, King of Scotland, Macduff, and Duncan in Holinshed's Chronicles (1587), a history of England, Scotland, and Ireland familiar to Shakespeare and his contemporaries, although the events in the play differ extensively from the history of the real Macbeth. The events of the tragedy are usually associated with the execution of Henry Garnet for complicity in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605.

In the backstage world of theatre, some believe that the play is cursed, and will not mention its title aloud, referring to it instead as " the Scottish play". Over the course of many centuries, the play has attracted some of the most renowned actors to the roles of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. It has been adapted to film, television, opera, novels, comics, and other media.

Macbeth (or The Tragedy of Macbeth) is a 1971 British-American film adaptation of William Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth. Directed by Roman Polanski, it retells the story of the Highland lord who becomes King of Scotland through treachery and murder. The film stars Jon Finch as Macbeth and Francesca Annis as Lady Macbeth.

Macbeth is a 1990 album by Slovenian avant-garde music group Laibach. It consists of music composed and performed by Laibach for a 1987 production of the William Shakespeare play '' Macbeth'' by Wilfried Minks at Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg, Germany in 1987. It is the second Laibach album consisting of music written for a play, after their 1986 album Baptism.

Macbeth is a 1948 American historical drama war film adaptation by Orson Welles of William Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth, with Welles in the lead role. Jeanette Nolan co-stars as Lady Macbeth.

Macbeth is an established Italian gothic metal band in the international music scene. Founded in 1995 by drummer Fabrizio Cislaghi.

Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare.

Macbeth may also refer to:

• Macbeth (character), the title character of Shakespeare's play

Macbeth is an opera in three acts, with music by Ernest Bloch to a libretto by Edmond Fleg, after the eponymous play of William Shakespeare. Bloch composed the opera between 1904 and 1906, but it did not receive its first performance until 30 November 1910 by the Opéra-Comique in Paris with Henri Albers in the title role and conducted by François Ruhlmann. Alex Cohen has written of quarrels within the cast that contributed to the opera's poorly received premiere.

Macbeth is a silent 1908 American film directed by James Stuart Blackton based on the William Shakespeare play of the same name. It is the earliest known film version of that play. It was a black and white silent film that had English intertitles. It is currently unknown if any print of the film still exists.

Macbeth is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi, with an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave and additions by Andrea Maffei, based on William Shakespeare's play of the same name. Written for the Teatro della Pergola in Florence, it was Verdi's tenth opera and first given on 14 March 1847. Macbeth was the first Shakespeare play that Verdi adapted for the operatic stage. Almost twenty years later, Macbeth was revised and expanded in a French version and given in Paris on 19 April 1865.

After the success of Attila in 1846, by which time the composer had become well established, Macbeth came before the great successes of 1850 to 1853 ( Rigoletto, Il trovatore and La traviata) which propelled him into universal fame. As sources, Shakespeare's plays provided Verdi with lifelong inspiration: some, such as an adaption of King Lear (as Re Lear) were never realized, but he wrote his two final operas using Othello as the basis for Otello (1887) and The Merry Wives of Windsor as the basis for Falstaff (1893).

The first version of Macbeth was completed during the time which Verdi described as his "galley years," which ranged over a period of 16 years, and one which saw the composer produce 22 operas. By the standards of the subject matter of almost all Italian operas during the first fifty years of the 19th century, Macbeth was highly unusual. The 1847 version was very successful and it was presented widely. Pleased with his opera and with its reception, Verdi wrote to Antonio Barezzi, his former father-in-law and long-time supporter about two weeks after the premiere:

The 1865 revision, produced in a French translation and with several additions was first given on 19 April of that year. It was less successful, and the opera largely faded from public view until the mid-20th century revivals.

Macbeth is a 2006 Australian adaptation of William Shakespeare's Macbeth. It was directed by Geoffrey Wright and features an ensemble cast led by Sam Worthington in the title role. Macbeth, filmed in Melbourne and Victoria, was released in Australia on 21 September 2006.

Wright and Hill wrote the script, which — although it uses a modern-day Melbourne gangster setting, and the actors deliver the dialogue in Australian accents — largely maintains the language of the original play.

Macbeth was selected to screen at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2006.

Lord Macbeth is the title character and titular main protagonist turned primary antagonist of William Shakespeare's Macbeth (c. 1603–1607). The character is based on the historical king Macbeth of Scotland, and is derived largely from the account in Holinshed's Chronicles (1587), a history of Britain.

Macbeth is a Scottish noble and a valiant military man. After a supernatural prophecy, and at the urging of his wife, Lady Macbeth, he commits regicide and becomes King of Scotland. He thereafter lives in anxiety and fear, unable to rest or to trust his nobles. He leads a reign of terror until defeated by his former ally Macduff. The throne is then restored to the rightful heir, the murdered King Duncan's son, Malcolm.

Macbeth, is a silent 1909 film adaptation of the William Shakespeare play. It was released on December 3, 1909. It is a silent black-and-white film with French intertitles.

Macbeth is a 1911 film adaptation of the William Shakespeare play Macbeth; no prints are known to exist. Like all films of the time, it is silent and black-and-white, with English intertitles; it ran for 14 minutes.

Macbeth is a German 1913 silent film version of the William Shakespeare play Macbeth, and the fifth film adaptation of that work. Arthur Bourchier plays Macbeth, and Violet Vanbrugh Lady Macbeth. It was released on November 17, 1913 in the UK. It is 47 minutes long.

It is considered to be a lost film, though silentera.com states that the International Museum of Photography and Film at George Eastman Museum may have a print.

Macbeth is a French 1915 film adaptation of the William Shakespeare play Macbeth. It was released on December 31, 1915 in France. It is a silent black-and-white film with French intertitles.

Macbeth is a black and white 1922 film adaptation of the William Shakespeare play Macbeth. It was the last silent film version of that play produced, and the eighth film adaptation of the play.

Macbeth is a 1987 French film of Verdi's opera Macbeth ( libretto by Francesco Maria Piave based on Shakespeare's play) Directed by Claude d'Anna, it was screened out of competition at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival.

Macbeth is a 2015 British-French-American adaptation of the Shakespeare tragedy directed by Justin Kurzel and written by Jacob Koskoff, Todd Louiso, and Michael Lesslie, based on William Shakespeare's play of the same name. The film stars Michael Fassbender in the title role and Marion Cotillard as Lady Macbeth. The film was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. The film has received positive notice for the depiction of the lead character by Fassbender and for the adapted writing of the film script.

Macbeth is a 1960 television film adaptation of the William Shakespeare play presented as the November 20, 1960 episode of the American anthology series Hallmark Hall of Fame. The series' second production of the play was, like the 1954 live telecast, also directed by George Schaefer, and again starred Maurice Evans and the Australian-born Judith Anderson. The supporting cast, however, was different, consisting entirely of British actors, and was filmed on location in Scotland; the 1954 version had used a mostly American cast.

Macbeth is a live television adaptation of the William Shakespeare play presented as the November 28, 1954 episode of the American anthology series Hallmark Hall of Fame. Directed by George Schaefer, and starring Maurice Evans and Dame Judith Anderson, the production was telecast in color, but has only been preserved on black-and-white kinescope.

In 1960, Evans and Anderson starred in a filmed made-for-television production of the play, also directed by Schaefer for the Hallmark Hall of Fame, but with an entirely different supporting cast. That production was filmed in color on location in Scotland, and was released theatrically in Europe.

Macbeth is a symphonic poem written by Richard Strauss between 1886 and 1888. The work was his first tone poem, which Strauss described as "a completely new path" for him compositionally. Written in some semblance of sonata form, the piece was revised more thoroughly than any of Strauss's other works; these revisions, focused primarily on the development and recapitulation sections, show how much the composer was struggling at this point in his career to balance narrative content with musical form. Bryan Gilliam writes in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians that, "New path or not, Macbeth failed to find a firm place in the concert repertory, because it lacked the thematic cogency and convincing pacing of musical events so evident in the two antecedent works [ Don Juan and Tod und Verklärung ( Death and Transfiguration)]. And despite revisions to the orchestration, in an attempt to restrain inner voices and highlight principal themes, Macbeth still falls short of Don Juan and Tod und Verklärung in sonic clarity." \relative c' { \clef treble \key d \minor \time 4/4 d2.\ff~^"Macbeth theme" d8. a''16-> | bes,2~ bes16 a( e f) g( bes) cis-. e-. | g4 bes cis e8. g16-> | aes,2. }

The piece is scored for 3 flutes, (3rd doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, bass trumpet, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, snare drum, cymbals, tam-tam and strings.

Macbeth is a 1978 videotaped version of Trevor Nunn's Royal Shakespeare Company production of the play by William Shakespeare. Produced by Thames Television, it features Ian McKellen as Macbeth and Judi Dench as Lady Macbeth. The TV version was directed by Philip Casson.

The original stage production was performed at The Other Place, the RSC's small studio theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. It had been performed in the round before small audiences, with a bare stage and simple costuming. The recording preserves this style: the actors perform on a circular set and with a mostly black background; changes of setting are indicated only by lighting changes.

A film of Macbeth with Laurence Olivier in the lead and directing was one project for which Olivier was ultimately unable to gain financing.

Macbeth is a 1961 Canadian television film adaptation of William Shakespeare's Macbeth starring Sean Connery.

Macbeth is an indie rock band formed in November 2008 in Taipei, Taiwan. The band composes of Mai Su (bass/vocal), Howie Yu (guitar/vocal), Ian Chen (drum) and Michael Xu (keyboard).

Macbeth played their first gig at UnderWorld in July 2009, and was invited to play at the 2009 WHITE LABEL, Free Tibet Music, 2010 Megaport Music Festival, The Next Big Thing and many other music festivals. A report by Liberty Times in March 2010 recommended Macbeth as one of the Top Six Must-Hear Indie Bands in Taiwan, and Macbeth's original song, Red Light City had been ranked as top one in The Top Ten Songs Weekly on Street Voice for two weeks in June, 2010.

The band's sound contains a mix of rhythmic bass and synthesized guitar, and the frolicsome keyboard and drums offer joyful dance music element into their songs. Each composing Macbeth introduces new elements in order to provide the audiences endless pleasure and excitement of new sounds.

The 2010 television version of Macbeth was broadcast on BBC Four on 12 December 2010. It was directed by Rupert Goold from his stage adaptation for the Chichester Festival Theatre in 2007. It starred Patrick Stewart in the title role, with Kate Fleetwood as Lady Macbeth. The film specifically evokes the atmosphere of the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin, with subtle parallels between Stalin and Macbeth in their equally brutal quests for power. The three witches likewise receive an update in keeping with the 20th century aesthetics, appearing as hospital nurses. Their presence is pervasive throughout the film, punctuating the horror of Macbeth's murderous reign. The film was filmed entirely on location at Welbeck Abbey.