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b"Sometimes you get up in the middle of the night realizing that what is done can never be undone. For Lady Macbeth, no amount of handwringing (or hand-washing) can clear her conscience. She and her husband have done some really, really bad things in their pursuit of power, but it\\u2019s Lady Macbeth whose ambition drives her to midnight rantings about her crimes.\\nIn this episode, host Rhiannon Giddens and her guests reflect on Lady Macbeth\\u2019s sleepwalking scene \\u2013 her final appearance in Giuseppe Verdi\\u2019s opera based on Shakespeare. It\\u2019s a rumination on ambition and the dangers of running too hard at the things we desire the most. Or at least the things we think we deserve. At the end of the show, soprano Anna Netrebko sings the complete aria \\u201cUna macchia \\xe8 qui tuttora\\u201d \\u2013 Out, damned spot! \\u2013 from the Metropolitan Opera stage. \\nThe Guests\\nLeading soprano Anna Netrebko started her career singing the sweet and innocent Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, and now she\\u2019s completely at home playing Verdi\\u2019s murderous queen. She knows many highly ambitious people, but not one of them has ever killed a king (that she knows of). Netrebko debuted as Lady Macbeth at the Met in 2014.\\xa0\\nAnne Midgette\\u2019s lifelong love of Giuseppe Verdi began with Macbeth. As the Washington Post\\u2019s classical music critic, she\\u2019s written on Verdi and much more over her 11-year tenure. Her husband recently caught her singing Lady Macbeth\\u2019s sleepwalking scene in the shower. They are still married.\\nTana Wojczuk is a writer and teacher at New York University. She\\u2019s the author of the forthcoming Lady Romeo: The Radical and Revolutionary Life of Charlotte Cushman, America's First Celebrity which tells the story of the 19th-century actress who changed how we look at the role of Lady Macbeth. \\nSpecial appearance from Dame Judi Dench. A seven-time Academy Award nominee, Dench made a name for herself performing with the Royal Shakespeare Company and twice starred as Lady Macbeth."