This book, a unique collection of speculation and documentation, grew out of the Fifth International Verdi Congress held in Danville, Kentucky, in 1977, where the 1847 version of Macbetb was performed. Macbetb was the first of Verdi's three Shakespeare operas, 'Dearer to me than all my other operas', as he wrote when dedicating the score of the new work to his benefactor, Barezzi. Many of the papers given at the congress are incorporated into the present volume, which focuses on the myriad ways Verdi fused libretto, music and staging into a powerful theatrical experience. The contents include much contemporary documentation about the opera: 186 letters, reviews of the first performance and the 1865 revision, and a scholarly transcription of Verdi's working libretto. There is also a chronology of performances of Macbetb and an annotated bibliography.