Verdi’s stirring opera Nabucco, based on the Assyrian king Nebuchadnezzar, is being staged this season by the Metropolitan Opera in New York, with Spanish opera superstar Plácido Domingo in the main role.

Despite the occasional liberties taken with biblical history and its characters, the overall story draws closely to the events as recounted in Jewish scriptures and starts off with the destruction of the first temple in Jerusalem to then travel through various locations within the city of Babylon.

It was this same opera which gave the world the famous music score commonly referred to as Va, pensiero, a patriotic passage officially known as the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves. Verdi’s 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.

The New York Times writes: “James Levine and Plácido Domingo, the battle-scarred titans of opera… firmly slash through a host of recent suggestions… that it might be time for them to hang up their respective towels…”, and adds, “Nabucco is defined by its choruses… [and the] company’s ensemble, under the direction of Donald Palumbo, rose to the occasion with massed yet transparent, shimmering singing.”

 

■ Spazju Kreattiv is screening an encore of the live performance of Nabucco tomorrow at St James Cavalier in Valletta at 5pm. The opera is in Italian with English subtitles. Further screenings are scheduled for May 28 and July 2. Spazju Kreattiv are offering block tickets for the Met Opera season performances. For more information, visit kreattivita.org.

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