Nabucco by Verdi, tor. 02 jul. 2019, Od (2019/2019), Režija: Andreas Homoki,, Dirigent Fabio Luisi, Opernhaus, Zurich, Switzerland

"Va pensiero sull'ali dorate" – the famous prisoner's chorus from Nabucco is considered the heart of the entire opera. And these very words are said to have once ignited Giuseppe Verdi's imagination when he accidentally caught sight of this passage in the libretto, which he wanted to put aside without having composed it. With his third opera - written in a dark time overshadowed by a series of deaths - Verdi saved himself, so to speak. Here he found his own musico-dramatic language, for which widely rambling lines and explosive rhythms are equally characteristic. Verdi later wrote that his artistic career really began with the composition of Nabucco . An important protagonist in this work is the choir in the role of the Israelites captured by the Babylonians. Against this political background, Verdi unfolds the drama of individual destinies, such as that of Abigaille, an unhappy lover who initially believes she is Nabucco's daughter, but then has to learn that she is descended from a slave. Finally, the Babylonian king Nabucco overcomes his megalomania and releases the prisoners into freedom. The call for freedom and self-determination was also voiced among the Italian people during Verdi's lifetime, as they themselves suffered from the foreign rule of the Habsburgs and Bourbons. In the course of Italian reunification and the creation of a new national myth in the mid-19th century, Verdi became one of the most popular identification figures, and the prisoner's choir was even stylized as the "soundtrack" of the "Risorgimento". The new production in the staging by Andreas Homoki comes up with a top-class cast: Michael Volle makes his debut in the title role, Anna Smirnova can be experienced as Abigaille, a highly demanding role with which she has already inspired at the Vienna State Opera and the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Georg Zeppenfeld sings Zaccaria. General Music Director Fabio Luisi directs the Philharmonia Zürich.