Verdi: Macbeth - Muti, Milnes, Carreras, Cossotto (2 CDs)

Verdi: Macbeth
Sherrill Milnes (Macbeth), Fiorenza Cossotto (Lady Macbeth), Jose Carreras (Macduff), Ruggero Raimondi (Banco), Giuliano Bernardi (Malcolm), Maria Borgato (Dama), Carlo Del Bosco (Medico)
Ambrosian Opera Chorus, New Philharmonia Orchestra, Riccardo Muti

Macbeth, Verdi’s first Shakespearean opera, is thrillingly dark and imaginative, its score a bubbling cauldron of hubris, brutality, mystery, insanity, tragedy and compassion. Riccardo Muti is in his element, driving the drama and framing the grandly vivid interpretations of Sherrill Milnes and Fiorenza Cossotto as the Macbeths, the glowingly youthful Macduff of José Carreras and the dignified, but doomed Banquo of Ruggero Raimondi.