Banco

This Role is from the Opera :
Macbeth

This role performs the piece/s :
Due vaticini
Studia il passo

The Voice Type for this Role is :
Bass

FACTS: Shakespeare’s play was based on a chronicle of Scottish history written by Hector Boece. However, chronicles at that time were not accurate representations of fact, and Banquo was a new character invented by Boece, along with Banquo’s son Fleance.

Boece makes the nobleman part of the plot to kill King Duncan, but Shakespeare clears him of all involvement, possibly because Banquo was seen at the ancestor of the house of Stewart. At that time Shakespeare’s Macbeth was first performed, the reigning monarch was James II, a Stewart…

(Where stage directions are quoted, they appear in ‘italics’.)

CHARACTER EVOLUTION: Flushed with success on this “glorious” day, Banco is the first to challenge the witches: “Who are you? … I would call you women, yet your filthy beards deny this.” When the witches have foretold Macbeth’s future, Banco is also eager to hear his: “Speak to me, fantastic creatures, if the future is not hidden from you.” As the witches tell him, “You shall father kings!” Banco perhaps gets a premonition of the political danger of his situation:
Macbeth: You children will be kings.
Banco: And you will reign before them.

When the first prophecy regarding Macbeth comes true, Banco immediately notices the change in his comrade: “How the prospect of a royal throne inflates him with pride!” Banco himself is more cautious, realises that “Too often the evil spirits of the inferno speak us the truth just to betray us.”

Certainly that night, Banco hears “Strange screams of death … and the earth shook.” When Duncan’s murder is discovered, Banco alone realises the full extent of the turmoil to follow, and probably his own precarious position: “We are lost!” He joins with everyone in cursing the unknown murderers, although he must have a pretty good idea of who might have been involved… “Let your consuming fire, o heavens, fall on the loathsome, unknown murderer.” (Schiudi, inferno, la bocca ed inghiotti)

The same fear overcomes Banco, accompanied by his son, in the wooded park: “I have a strange stirring in my breast, full of suspicion and bad omens.” Recalling the night Duncan was murdered, he sees the murderers lying in wait, and tells his son to run. (Come dal ciel precipita) It is the last thing he ever does - alive.

As Macbeth learns of Banco’s murder, he promptly toasts the absent thane. However, Banco’s ghost has other ideas. ‘The ghost of Banco, visible only to him, rises and sits in his place.’ Every time the murderous couple toast Banco, the ghost returns, saying nothing but prompting Macbeth to reveal far too much of his involvement in the dead man’s murder, and the murder of others.

Finally, the ghost arises at the witches’ summands, to show the eight kings that will rule after Macbeth, all descended from Banco. Banco may be dead, but his family are still a threat…

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT: Banco is a much more politically astute person than Macbeth, and he is also very much aware of the danger any change in the ruling power may bring. He is not ambitious; when the witches declare his descendents will be kings, he does not act on the information. Only when his gut instinct tells him that he and his son are in actual danger does he act, and it’s almost too late. His son escapes, but only just. Banco’s major flaw is that he acted too slowly to save himself, but he redeems that with a menacing ghostly presence that haunts Macbeth. Is Banco’s ghost ‘real’ or just in Macbeth’s mind? Like so many of Shakespeare’s ghosts, that’s up to the director (or, in an ideal world, the performer playing Macbeth) to decide.

© 2005 Kirsty Young
Internet rights 2005 OperaTalent