Nabucco takes up a most potent array of subjects and deploys them to tremendous effect. The violent inner life of the family, the terrible price of political power, the struggle of oppressed peoples, the potence of a seemingly absent God: Verdi weaves all of these mighty and thorny questions into the finished work. Find The Metropolitan Opera on Facebook (opens new window) Find The Metropolitan Opera on Twitter (opens new window) Find The Metropolitan Opera on Instagram (opens new window). THE WORK: NABUCCO. An opera in four acts, sung in Italian Music by Giuseppe Verdi. Libretto by Temistocle Solera Based on biblical sources and the play. Nabuchodonosor by Auguste Anicet-Bourgeois and Francis Cornu First performed March 9, 1842. At La Scala, Milan, Italy. James Levine, Conductor. Elijah Moshinsky, Production. Nabucco shows many elements of Verdi's middle and later masterpieces, especially in the stentorian role of Zaccaria, the deep basso father figure that everyone looks to for hope. But it also looks back to Bellini, especially in Abigaille's big aria in Act I which is very reminiscent of Norma's Casta Diva, no bad thing. Roberto de Simone's production of this epic opera firmly established Verdi as the voice of the Italian people.
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