Opera Nabucco: content, video, interesting facts, arias

G. Verdi opera "Nabucco"

The opera "Nabucco" by Giuseppe Verdi assessed as the beginning of his creative takeoff. After the failure of the first two works ("Oberto" and "King for an hour") to the 28-year-old composer came a huge success. Enthusiastic audience and critics perceived the production as a revolutionary event in the music world. A new, previously unheard of style in music was so swift and inspiring that the performers were incredibly charged with the energy of the piece. A contemporary of the composer A. Puzhen talked about the general atmosphere at La Scala Theater during rehearsals: workers and employees of the theater threw down their work and gathered near the stage and behind it, listening to every word and measure, excitedly discussing each finished piece.

Grandiose crowd scenes, conflicts of strong characters, vivid in emotional coloring of the scene of prayers, prophecies, curses - are the embodiment of creative ideas Giuseppe Verdi. From here begins the great composer. The work remains relevant and inspiring today.

Summary of the opera Verdi "Nabucco"and many interesting facts about this work read on our page.

Summary of Nabucco

The opera takes place in Jerusalem and Babylon for 578 years before AD. The plot is based on historical events and biblical epic. In the center of attention is the love of the captive commander and the royal daughter.

The city was besieged by the army of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon (Nabucco, as the Italians changed the name difficult to pronounce). Citizens take refuge in the Temple of Solomon. Zechariah, the supreme high priest, assures people of a successful outcome of the siege - the daughter of the Babylonian ruler, young Fenen, arrives in the besieged city and can serve as a hostage.

The love affair staged by a triangle: Fenen - the daughter of the ruler, the commander Ishmael - the nephew of the ruler of Jerusalem and Abigail - the adopted daughter of Nabucco. The love of Fenena and Ishmael is fastened before the enmity of two nations The girl follows her lover and at the time of the war accepts Judaism, becoming the wife of Ishmael. At the same time, Abigail is hopelessly in love with the commander.

The hearts of the lovers were joined by the high priest Zechariah during the siege of the city. Jerusalem fell, the enemies captured the temple. Abigail at the head of a detachment of soldiers breaks into the temple. Having met her lover, she offers him salvation if he accepts her feelings. But love and loyalty to Fenen makes Ishmael reject the girl’s offer, despite the threat of death.

Nebuchadnezzar victoriously rides into the sanctuary on horseback, and Zechariah meets him with a curse. People seeking salvation in the temple, threatened with captivity and shameful death. But Fenena comes to his defense. Struck by the behavior of his daughter, Nabucco learns from Ishmael that she is now his wife. The angry king orders to destroy the temple, razing it to the ground, and the Jewish people to capture.

Further, the action is transferred to Babylon, where Abigail finds out that she is not of royal blood and adopted by Nabucco, who is sent to new military campaigns and temporarily transfers the power to Fenene, his own daughter. Proud and vain Abigail is deeply wounded - her stepsister becomes a rival in power and in love. The perfidious pagan priest encourages the unfortunate to seize power, taking advantage of the absence of a ruler.

The conspiracy of traitors fails after the victorious appearance of Nabucco. He, having won a number of victories, thinks he is a deity, despite the warnings of Zechariah. The thunderbolt blows the crown from the head of the atheist and the proud, Abigail picks it up and seizes the throne.

The curses of the captives and the warnings of Zechariah come true. Nabucco fell into insanity, his consciousness then returns, then leaves him. Abigail rules Babylon, and intends to execute the captives, including Fenen and Ishmael.

Despite the pleas of the overthrown king, Abigail is adamant in his intention to execute the half-sister with the rest of the captives. The Jews, led by the high priest in prayers turn to God, remember their homeland. Here sounds the famous choir of slaves "Va pensiero ..." - "Fly, golden-winged thought."

Zechariah in the visions dreamed the fall of Babylon. He again inspires hope in his countrymen about the imminent release and victory over the enemy.

Nebuchadnezzar, abandoned by all, having heard the voices of the captive Jews who are being led to execution, draws prayers to their God. He prayed for the salvation of his daughter and the release of all prisoners. In addition, repenting of his pride, he asks for forgiveness. His prayers are heard - the mind returns to the king, and he, along with the detachment under the leadership of the faithful commander Abdallo, hurries to the aid of the captives.

At the sacred mountain for the Babylonians, the soldiers of Nebuchadnezzar attack the guards. Abigail poisons himself and on the threshold of death, repenting, asks forgiveness from Fenen and Ishmael.

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Interesting Facts

• The emergence of Nabucco was the forerunner of revolutionary discoveries in the field of historical sciences. Biblical myths are becoming a reality - they rise from the dust of the earth. That year, when the opera Verdi It was a triumphant event on the stage of Milan, where archaeological research is carried out near Nineveh. French historian Paul-Émil Botta works on an ancient settlement where biblical myths begin to acquire historical realities. Babylon rises from the dust with its distinctive culture and architecture. Further excavations in Mesopotamia revealed to the world a historical figure - the king Nebuchadnezzar II, who lived more than two and a half millennia ago.
• The premiere of the opera "Nabucco" was performed by the role of Abigail beautiful Giuseppina Strepponi. Between her and the maestro took a novel, which lasted ten years. Civil marriage was not welcomed in those times, so it received many complaints from the church and the public. Ten years later, the singer and composer were married, putting an end to gossip.

• The farewell to the great composer was held by the people singing a choir of slaves from Nabucco. This song really won the hearts of grateful listeners, fans and all Italians. The crowd of many thousands accompanied Va pensiero to the end of her great compatriot.
• The slave choir opened La Scala at the end of World War II, and it also sounds like the unofficial anthem of Italy.
• Another interesting fact related to the unfading interest in the immortal work: the name Nabucco has been assigned to a gas pipeline that will run from Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan to the EU countries.

Va pensiero at movies

Va pensiero, or The Song of the Exiles, is popular with filmmakers. So, Dario Argento emphasizes the atmosphere of horror in the movie "Inferno". Also the chorus of captive Jews sounds in the films "Five Obstacles" by Jörgen Leta, "The Godfather of 3" by Francis Ford Coppola, "The Price of a Man" by Paolo Virzi and many others.

Popular arias and numbers from the opera "Nabucco"

Overture - listen

Choir "Va pensiero" - listen

Scene and aria Abigail "Ben io t'invenni ... Anch'io dischiuso un giorno" - listen

Nabucco's aria "Dio di Giuda" - to listen

The history of the creation of "Nabucco"

Having failed with his first two creations, the young composer decides not to use the opera genre anymore. In addition, in the personal life of the composer there was a real tragedy: his children die from an incomprehensible disease, and a year later his wife dies from encephalitis. But spiritual and creative powers return to the composer with the start of work on a new opera. Nabucco becomes a turning point in the work of the maestro.

Quite by chance, the libretto written by Solero comes to him. The poet had already offered his work to the famous German composer Otto Nicolai, who worked at that time in Milan. But the adherent of fine art did not consider it worthy for staging on stage and considered it unworthy of Italian opera. Even after the enthusiastic reviews of critics and the overwhelming audience reception, Nikolai negatively responded to both the performance and the possibilities of its author, his feelings were offended by the emotional frankness of passions.

There are legends that Giuseppe Verdi I saw the libretto dropped by Solero. After reading the pages of the chorus of captive Jews, accidentally opened by the fall, the composer was so impressed with what he read that he decided to return to operatic music. According to another version, a friend and impresario Merelli persuades the composer to read the libretto. And it is his belief in Verdi’s talent that helps to take risks. The fact is that at the same time the great maestro's performances are already successfully performed on the stage. To attract the attention of the public to a new work of the author, whose previous productions were unsuccessful, required tremendous patience and courage.

Libretto Solero attracts the maestro with bright characters of the characters, breathtaking scenes, emotional heat of prophecies, curses, prayers. The composer courageously combines genre traditions with new truly revolutionary forms. The old norms of opera performance collapsed, a new type of operatic temperament was formed.

Creating opera Verdi made his own changes to the libretto. So, in the mouth of the Jewish high priest Zechariah was a prophecy about the fall of the chains of the captive Jews, instead of the script written by the duet Fenena and Ishmael, who were also in captivity. In the course of the whole production, the composer analyzes the work of the poet who created the libretto and subordinates it to his requirements. Some scenes are lined up by Verdi himself, and the librettist only writes poetry based on the plot.

The premiere of the opera "Nabucco" was held in early March 1842 in La Scala and created a sensation. Austrian domination ruled out a direct image of the opposition of the Italian people, so the biblical images came in handy - the audience heard their own aspirations in the words of the characters. The encore was asked to perform the part of the choir of Jewish slaves, but the traditions of that time did not allow it.

The spectators enthusiastically accepted the seething passions of pagan times. In the biblical narrative, people saw an appeal to fight and at the same time realized the fear of the inevitable bloodshed, which resulted in a revolutionary fire across Europe in 1848.

Spiritual heritage

Religiousness shown in Nabucco can also be traced in Verdi’s future work. Christian themes are close to the composer and are reflected in Lambards, Alizere, Joan of Arc, and others.

A vivid transformation is observed by viewers in the central figure of the work - the Babylonian ruler Nebuchadnezzar. In the initial acts I and II, it is a heathen who glorifies the god of war Baal. He tramples on the religion of the Jews, enslaves them, he does not hesitate to sacrifice in the face of his daughter. In the end, proud of his invincibility, declares himself a god. Divine retribution overtakes the arrogant, and, only undergoing torment and repentance, the hero comes to a new true religion. The spiritual formation of the hero is reflected in the music accompanying him. If at the beginning it is characterized by a heroic, marching rhythm, by the end of Act II, the melody becomes cantilena. And when the distraught king meets Abigail, marching motifs go to her, to the new ruler. The culminating moment comes in the last act, where Nabucco is aware of the consequences of his actions, and accepts the Jewish God. Here the author brilliantly reveals the spiritual manifestations of the hero.

Incredibly harmoniously superimposed the image of Abigail on mezzo-soprano. In the future - this is a whole galaxy of strong female characters. They were clearly expressed in the iconic heroines: Gulnara, Federika, Amneris. Innovation opera productions was the party of this bright and passionate heroine "Nabucco". Obviously, the continuity of intonation can be traced - what was characteristic of the reigning Nebuchadnezzar is also inherent in Queen Abigail. The melodiousness and melodiousness can be heard in the scene of the girl's death agony. The composer in her speech introduces brief phrases and expressive pauses, which makes parting a heartfelt scene.

A significant place in the opera occupy choral parts. The chorus appears in every important stage - this gives the whole statement a biblical elevation, significance. The main characters of Fenen and Ishmael according to Verdi’s intention are deliberately deprived of solo numbers. Any turn of events receives an assessment of the choir with his direct participation in the action. The chorus conveys the mood of the whole scene and from this sounds either sublimely harshly (the prayer of the Jews), now restlessly (the capture of Jerusalem), then violently with fanaticism (accusations of the Jews of betraying Ishmael). The most famous choir of prisoners of the Jews Va pensiero. He became a way of fighting for freedom, the song of the revolution.

Productions

The triumphal procession of Nabucco passed through Europe. Following Milan, the opera was staged in 1843 in Vienna, then in 1844 in Berlin, the baton was intercepted by Paris, where the French applauded the immortal work in 1845.

For the first time in Russia, Nabucco Verdi was presented to the public in 1851 at the Mariinsky Theater. But later the production was not updated and was not staged in other theaters of the empire. Although in 1847 Odessa residents saw the opera performed by the Italian troupe.

The national stage, the Bolshoi Theater, presented the creation of Verdi in 2001. Then an opera about the Babylonian king was staged by the Tatar theater named after M. Jalil in 2003. The Mariinsky Theater together with Helikon-Opera staged a performance in 2005. And in 2006 the Nabucco premiere took place in Moscow at the New Opera.

In addition to the theater productions, Nabucco was staged as a film opera. For the first time in 1985, such a project was implemented by Italian director Brian Lardzh. Today we can see a large-scale performance staged by the Metropolitan Opera. The premiere took place in January 2017.

Opera "Nabucco"became a symbol of rebirth, hope for the future. No wonder its popularity is changeable - it appears in the heat of political passions, and falls in relatively even historical periods. This musical work is associated with impending grandiose changes in society. This is a mystical mystery of the composition.