Michael Oliver and director David Pountney discuss Verdi's first Shakespearean opera Macbeth, with illustrations from Claudio Abbado 's recording featuring
Piero Cappuccilli and Shirley Verrett as the fatally ambitious couple. David Pountney ascribes Macbeth's downfall to an over-vivid imagination and his precipitous reaction to the witches' prophecy of future glory. The character of Lady Macbeth also comes under scrutiny, as her passion for action spurs her husband first to regicide and then to further bloodshed,
