UPCOMING EVENTS

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“This was an extraordinary example of community music-making, showing a passion for opera and civic pride in equal (and no small) measure.”

– Edinburgh Music Review

“Paisley Opera’s adaptation of “Macbeth” was a resounding success, seamlessly blending the timeless tale of ambition and tragedy with the unique essence of Paisley’s culture and community.”

– Paisley Photographs

You will probably know Macbeth as the famous Shakespeare play written in 1606. However, more than 200 years later the composer Guiseppe Verdi set the story to music, and gave us one of his most famous operas. Of course, we had to put our unique spin on this classic, as we always do!

Paisley Opera’s 2023 production of Verdi’s Macbeth devised by director Simon Hannigan was set not in medieval Scotland, but instead in 1970s Paisley. Our community chorus members portrayed anyone from punk rockers to auld wifeys in the steamie, and our Macbeth David Stephenson was a notorious gang leader. We enjoyed throwing it back to a nostalgic era with authentic staging and costumes from set designer Katy McGlynn, while exploring the underlying issues of sexism that are obscured by Verdi’s breathtaking music.

After encountering some persuasive local women who predict his rise to power, Macbeth is set on becoming the top dog in a prominent gang, and will do almost anything to get there. With his dangerously ambitious wife to spur him on, he murders the gang leader, Duncan. He eventually becomes consumed by power, and haunted by his own actions.