Was recently watching this https://www.arte.tv/en/videos/115046-001-A/giuseppe-verdi-macbeth/
and got curious !
While you’re here let me know what you think about it, your favorite version, etc… 😎
Frank Kermode has a book called Shakespeare’s Language, which I find very helpful for reading Shakespeare, and it includes a chapter on Macbeth.
In terms of versions, the one starring Ian McKellen and Judi Dench is very dark and weird, and also very good. You can also watch the whole thing online, which helps!
There’s also a version that I like a lot that unfortunately was directed by a certain disgraced director and sex offender, and which I’m therefore reluctant to recommend, but possibly you could pirate Roman Polanski’s version, which is genuinely nightmarish, as Macbeth should be.
My Mum was an English literature teacher and it was the Polanski version that she recommended to pupils.
Go and see it done live by an experienced company - all Shakespeare makes a lot more sense when seen live. I was off sick when my school went to see Julius Caesar at a local theatre and every agreed it was terrible but I went to see it at the RSC and was blown away. I got to see them put on the Scottish play and it was a revelation.
Slogging through books explaining it all in detail can really kill your enjoyment of a play.