opera was required. He went ahead to advise the impresario of the Lyrique, Léon Carvalho, that more time was needed and urged patience: "I am labouring, labouring, labouring" he assured the impresario and stressed that he wanted to look at the big picture and not try to hurry along a re-working of an opera he had written so many years before. So began a revision of the original version of 1847 over the winter of 1864/65. Verdi's librettist from years before, Francesco Maria Piave, was pressed into service to expand the opera and the composer exerted his usual pressures on him as he had done from their first collaboration: "No, no, my dear Piave, it won't do!" was a typical reaction to a first draft—in this case it was of Lady Macbeth's new act 2 aria "La luce langue", the result of which (notes biographer Mary Jane Phillips-Matz) was "from Verdi's insistence came Lady Macbeth's gripping scene". With the addition of music for Lady Macbeth, Macbeth's aria in act 3 was completely re-written—as was a considerable amount of the rest of act 3; a ballet was added in act 3; a newly composed chorus to an old text began act 4; and the ending of act 4 was also changed, Verdi being determined to drop Macbeth's final aria Mal per me che m'affidai ("Trusting in the prophecies of Hell") in favour of an off-stage death, to end with the triumphal chorus. As if all these specific demands which were placed on Piave were not enough, Verdi wrote a very lengthy letter to Ricordi outlining what he saw as the dramatic demands of the revision. Some relate to crucial elements in the drama, especially how Banquo's appearances as a ghost should be presented. Ultimately however, Verdi had little power over the staged production, but—in regard to the translation—he did insist that the translator, when considering the act 2 duet between the Macbeth couple, retain the words "Folie follie" as written in order to emphasise the dramatic impact which those words created. One final letter, this time in February to Escudier, relates to what Verdi saw as "the three roles in this opera, and there can only be three". He then lays out that there is "Lady Macbet, (sic) Macbet, (sic) [and the] Chorus of Witches", discounting the role of Macduff. and he continues by noting that, for him, "the Witches rule