Verdi interesting
This Saturday, Jan. 6, Giuseppe Verdi’s early masterpiece, “Nabucco,” will be broadcast live from the Metropolitan Opera stage in New York to the big screen at Newport Performing Arts Center.
This grand, epic staging promises to draw both opera lovers and newcomers to an ancient Babylon come to life.
Rulers challenge their gods, love struggles against empire and religious revelation goes hand in hand with divine retribution. The score is filled with musical ideas showing Verdi’s ability to innovate operatic convention in the service of character development and psychological depth. Foreshadowing his mature works, “Nabucco” shows the young composer as he is beginning to understand the full scope and power of his artistic vision. It would be the opera that brought him fame, and his chorus of the Hebrew slaves would go on to become the unofficial anthem of the Italian independence movement.
In his Met role debut, Georgian baritone George Gagnidze stars as Nabucco, the imperious king of Babylon, alongside Ukrainian soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska reprising the role of his vengeful daughter Abigaille. Singing the lovers Fenena and Ismaele are Russian mezzo-soprano Maria Barakova, in her Met role debut, and renowned South Korean baritone-turned-tenor SeokJong Baek, in his company debut. Ukrainian bass Dmitry Belosselskiy repeats his celebrated portrayal of the high priest Zaccaria, and Italian maestro Daniele Callegari conducts the performance, which will feature the ultimate showcase for the Met Chorus, “Va, pensiero.”
While the text takes many liberties with Biblical history and with the exception of the title role, the characters are fictional creations, the overall story stays close to events as related in Jewish scriptures.
The production is directed by Habib Azar, with two-time Grammy Award-winning soprano Angel Blue providing exclusive behind-the-scenes access and interviews with the cast and creative team during intermission.
Elijah Moshinsky’s monumental staging was first performed at the Met in 2001 and last appeared in 2017. The creative team includes set designer John Napier, costume designer Andreane Neofitou and lighting designer Howard Harrison.
The production, sung in Italian, will be broadcast live from the Met stage to the Alice Silverman Theatre beginning at 10 am. Run time is approximately 2 hours 50 minutes with one intermission. Tickets range from $15.50 to $25.75. The Newport Performing Arts Center is located at 777 W Olive Street. For more information, go to coastarts.org or call 541-265-2787.