MET Opera Live in HD – Nabucco

06 JAN 2024: Giuseppe Verdi’s exhilarating early masterpiece will be transmitted live to cinemas on 6 January.

Verdi’s drama about the fall of ancient Jerusalem at the hands of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II (Nabucco) is brought to life in a classic Met revival production of epic proportions. The grand, larger-than-life spectacle promises to draw opera lovers and newcomers alike for this dramatic retelling of biblical history.

The success of Verdi’s third opera catapulted the 28-year-old composer to international fame. The music and Verdi himself were subsumed into a surge of patriotic fervour culminating in the foundation of the modern nation of Italy. Specifically, the moving Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves (“Va, pensiero”), in which the Israelites express their longing for their homeland, came to stand for the country’s aspirations for unity and that exciting era in Italian history, the Risorgimento, or “Resurgence.”

Elijah Moshinsky’s production has an old-school charm, with its imposing, multiuse unit set that turns on the Met’s revolving stage. It harks back to a time when singers were almost solely responsible for delivering the drama, and that’s what baritone George Gagnidze as the imperious king did: “He shaped Nabucco’s full character arc with his baritone, from the sheeny resonance and dripping venom of a boastful king to the long, stately lines of a penitent one”.

The live cinema transmission is part of the Met’s award-winning LIVE IN HD series, presented in Germany and Austria by Clasart Classic.

Production Company The Metropolitan Opera
Stage Director Elijah Moshinsky
Composer Giuseppe Verdi
Orchestra / Band The Metropolitan Opera
Conductor Daniele Calligari
Soloist George Gagnidze
Soloist Liudmyla Monastyrska
Soloist Maria Barakova
Soloist SaekJong Baek