Macbeth

Ghostly guilt trips, blind ambition, cold-blooded murder, and perhaps theatre's first existential hero, prefacing Beckett and Pinter by a good three decades: and that is just the plot.

Giuseppe Verdi's operatic setting brings out all the dark romance of Shakespeare's Scottish play, replete with soaring themes, high drama and loads of singers acting like trees. Brooding and beautiful, it's the perfect antidote to Lloyd-Webber's sugary confections. Watching Edinburgh Grand Opera's production, it's easy to get swept up in this tale of sorcery and treason; if you're only familiar with Shakespeare's version you may be surprised by how well it makes the transition, and it's given an extra dimension by the Scottish names on stage, particularly Susan McNaught who excels as Lady Macbeth.

She corrals her powerful soprano with discipline and has the physicality to send chills through the audience, helped by an ever so slightly mad gleam in her eye. Welsh baritone Paul Gault is her hen-pecked hubby and he's more than a match, alternating machismo with self-doubt to create a complex and tortured anti-hero. The staging is no more than adequate but superb conducting from Neil Metcalfe of a supple orchestra more than compensates.