Spanish opera heavyweight Plácido Domingo stars in this season’s rendition of Nabucco, live from the Metropolitan Opera in New York this Saturday.

The success of Verdi’s third opera, a stirring drama about the fall of ancient Jerusalem at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, spring-boarded the 28-year-old composer to international fame.

Despite the occasional liberties taken with biblical history and its characters, the overall story draws closely to the events as recounted in Jewish scriptures, primarily, Jeremiah, as well as 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, Daniel and the Psalms. It starts off with the destruction of the first temple in Jerusalem and travels through various locations within the city of Babylon.

The music and Verdi himself were subsumed into a surge of patriotic fervour culminating in the foundation of the modern nation of Italy – a patriotism which rings clear in the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves, better known as Va, pensiero. This passage documents the Israelites’ longing for their homeland, directly mirrored in Italy’s aspirations for unity and that exciting era in its history known as il Risorgimento.

Conducted by James Levine, this production also stars Liudmyla Monastyrska as Abigaille, Jamie Barton as Fenena, Russell Thomas as Ismaele and Dimitry Belosselskiy as Zaccaria.

Spazju Kreattiv is screening the live performance of Nabucco on Saturday, January 7 at St James Cavalier in Valletta at 6.55pm. The opera is in Italian with English subtitles. Encores will be shown on February 19, May 28 and July 2. Spazju Kreattiv are offering block tickets for the Met Opera season performances. For more information, visit kreattivita.org.

■ The Met Opera season continues with a live screening of Nabucco this Saturday, starring Plácido Domingo.

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