Macbeth: Italian–English Side-by-Side Libretto With Translation

I’ve added another Verdi opera to LibrettoArchive: Macbeth, with the complete Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave and a new English translation.

The libretto is now available in the usual side-by-side Italian–English format, making it easy to follow the original text while listening to or studying the opera.

This one took me considerably longer than I expected. Macbeth is not an especially long libretto, but I wanted the English to stay close to Piave’s Italian while still sounding natural and clear. I worked through the libretto line by line, consulting existing translations where useful but retranslating and revising the English throughout.

There were many small details that deserved attention: the language of the witches, Macbeth’s visions, Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking scene, stage directions, and places where a literal translation loses the meaning or dramatic force of the Italian. The result is a new English translation prepared specifically for LibrettoArchive, rather than a reproduction of an existing translation.

The complete side-by-side libretto is now available on LibrettoArchive, and a paperback edition is also being prepared as part of my Side-by-Side Libretto Translations series. 

I’m glad to add one more major Verdi opera to the collection.