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Arena di Verona Opera Festival

Singer

Baritone

George Gagnidze

Nabucco

Leonardo López Linares ​

Boris Statsenko

Tenor

Walter Fraccaro

Ishmael

Mikheil Sheshaberidze

Rubens Pelizzari

Bass

Stanislav Trofimov

Zachary

Rafał Siwek

In Sung Sim

Soprano

Tatiana Melnychenko

Abigail

Rebeka Lokar

Anna Pirozzi

Susanna Branchini

Carmen Topciu

Fenena

Anna Malavasi

Nino Surguladze

Romano Dal Zovo

The High Priest of Ba'al

Nicolò Ceriani

Paolo Antognetti

Abdallo

Cristiano Olivieri

Madina Karbeli

Anna

Elena Borin

Conductor

Daniel Oren

Jordi Bernàcer

Stage director

Arnaud Bernard

Set designer

Alessandro Camera

Costume designer

Lighting designer

Paolo Mazzon

Chorus master

Vito Lombardi

Fondazione Arena di Verona

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Coro della Fondazione Arena di Verona

Orchestra

Orchestra dell'Arena di Verona

Verona

Italy

Arena di Verona

“Va pensiero,” the famous chorus from Verdi’s Nabucco is often cited as an official national anthem for Italy and proved as much throughout the Risorgimento when the country is battling for its independence from the Austrian.

The choral passage, with its nostalgia for a home lost, was truly emotional and established. Verdi as an composer of the revolutionary movement. So it is no surprise that at the same point, some production of Verdi’s Nabucco would be set, not in Babylon, as the libretto originally notes, but during the era where the Hebrews, seeking independence, would be portrayed as Italians and Nabucco and his oppressive babylonians would be Austrian Empire.

Nabucco by G. Verdi, from Arena di Verona, 2017. Directed by Arnaud Bernard, conductor Daniel Oren, starring Zaccaria,Nino Surguladze,Paolo Antognetti,Elena Borin,George Gagnidze,Rubens Pelizzari,Susanna Branchini,Nicolò Ceriani. Performed in Italian and subtitled in English, German, French, Italian, Japanese and Korean.

Verdi’s first unqualified hit gets the royal treatment in Arnaud Bernard’s 2017 production at Verona’s world-famous Roman amphitheater, the Arena di Verona! Starring George Gagnidze in the title role, Rubens Pelizzari as Ismaele, Susanna Branchini as Abigaille, and Nino Surguladze as Fenena, Bernard’s Nabucco transposes the dramatic tale of the Hebrew people fighting the Babylonian invaders of Jerusalem to mid-19th century Milan. There, the Milanese defend themselves against the Austrian aggressors, with the legendary La Scala opera house standing in for the cherished Temple of the Hebrew people. An imaginative retelling of one of Verdi's most cherished operatic masterpieces!

Elaborate Italian stage design and German-style director's theater – surely it's an impossible combination? Arnaud Bernard politicizes his Nabucco staging, giving it an anti-Austrian edge, transposing the action to 1848 during the age of the Risorgimento, complete with violence in the streets of Milan. This kind of thing isn't usually allowed at the Arena di Verona, making the staging a kind of revolution in its own right. Overwhelming applause for the soloists, choir and orchestra.

Nabucco Verdi

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