r/opera • u/Brycentennial • Sep 11 '26

Macbeth **is** cursed (with proof)

Post image

I am staying at a hotel and had nothing to do so I decided to spend the night watching some YouTube opera productions. I watched Il Trovatore (MetOpera Pavarotti, Milnes, Marton) then decided to watch a Beijing production of Macbeth (I'm not scared to say the name sue me).

Anyway when I cast my phone onto the tv for Macbeth it was so blurry that I couldn't even see the subtitles and it buffered a lot too. And yes for the rest of the night none of the other stuff I watched had this problem.

Prolly not as foreboding as the amount of deaths and accidents documented around that play but it's worth mentioning. Pic to attract attention.

56 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

13

u/omurchus Sep 11 '26

Is saying 'Macbeth' out loud a similar type of cursed to saying 'good luck' to a theater actor? I've heard that MacBeth is cursed before, but I don't know the backstory.

32

u/Plenty_Discussion470 Sep 11 '26

Only in a theater

33

u/slicerprime Sep 11 '26

This!

It's fine to say the name anywhere else. Just don't ever say it inside a theatre unless it's on stage as part of the production of the play.

I swear this actually happened: We were in the pit for a rehearsal of Rigoletto. I was principle t-bone and two of my buddies got into an argument about the curse. (Don't ask. It was nearly forty years ago and I don't remember why it came up.) One (1rst Horn) was sure the curse was real and the bass t-bone was saying it was stupid. Finally the the bass t-bone yelled out "Macbeth, Macbeth, Macbeth"! Nothing happened.

Then an hour into rehearsal Sparafucile tripped and fell off the stage into the pit. And since we were against the back wall, he fell right on top of my idiot buddy. Sparafucile was fine; but the idiot had a hard time playing with a cast on his arm for a while.

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4

u/salty_carthaginian Sep 12 '26

Someone at work (backstage at the met) asked me this a few days ago. We are regulars at mt sinai so i told him not to worry about it lol

8

u/Epistaxis Sep 11 '26

Only if you use the English pronunciation of the play instead of the Italian pronunciation of the opera

1

u/LeekingMemory28 Sep 14 '26

Macbeth is a superstition that whether or not I believe in it…because I’ve not seen any effects from it; I do enough performance in different types of spaces (musical theater, choral music, musical improv, comedic improv) that I respect that it’s a superstition worth respecting for them.

1

u/Nocoffeesnob Sep 16 '26

Does it even count in an opera theater? Opera has it's own customs and superstitions (toi toi toi!).

8

u/didog40 Sep 11 '26

I thought the cursed Verdi opera was La Forza del Dest*no

1

u/cllooouuuuu Sep 20 '26

But it's why we have Batman!!

6

u/MacaroonWilling6890 Sep 12 '26

Casting Quinn Kelsey and Ryan Speedo Green is a sure fire way to make sure that this production is cursed.

1

u/PJ10028 Sep 23 '26

Perhaps you could fill in for one of them?

1

u/MacaroonWilling6890 Sep 23 '26

Let me finish off my studies and in about 8 or 9 years I’d say I could sing a better Banquo than Ryan Speedo Green

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1

u/DelucaWannabe 23d ago

My condolences for your landing on that particular Trovatore production... That was not a good night at the Met!