Nabucco Is the Jan. 7, 2017, Metropolitan Opera Saturday Matinee Broadcast

Summary: The Jan. 7, 2017, Metropolitan Opera Saturday matinee broadcast is Nabucco, a four-act opera set in 6th century Babylon and Jerusalem by Giuseppe Verdi.

The 2016-2017 Met Opera season performances of Verdi's Nabucco mark the fifth revival of Elijah Moshinsky's new staging, which debuted March 8, 2001, at Met Opera: Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera, via Twitter Dec. 12, 2016

Nabucco, a four-act opera by Italian operatist Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (Oct. 10, 1813-Jan. 27, 1901) concerning a fictional love triangle set in 6th century Babylon and Jerusalem, is the Jan. 7, 2017, Metropolitan Opera Saturday matinee broadcast.

Italian opera composer and librettist Temistocle Solera (Dec. 25, 1815-April 21, 1878) wrote the Italian libretto. The literary sources are the Old Testament books of 2 Chronicles, Daniel, Jeremiah, 2 Kings and Psalms; Nabuchodonosor, a four-act play written in French in 1836 by French dramatists Auguste Anicet-Bourgeois (Dec. 25, 1806-Jan. 13, 1871) and Francis Cornu (Oct. 4, 1794-March 7, 1848); Nabuccodonosor, a ballet adaptation of Anicet-Bourgeois and Cornu’s play by Italian ballet dancer, choreographer and composer Antonio Cortesi (December 1796-April 1879) premiering in 1838 at Teatro Regio (“Royal Theatre”) in Torino, Piedmont, northwestern Italy.

The premiere took place March 9, 1842. The venue was Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Lombardy, northwestern Italy. Milan’s famed opera house premiered Verdi’s first four operas.

Nabucco was Verdi’s third opera. The biblically-themed opera claims the honor of being the composer’s first success.

The Saturday matinee broadcast of Nabucco begins at 1 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (6 p.m. Coordinated Universal Time). The estimated run time for the performance is about 2 hours 44 minutes. The performance, sung in the original Italian, comprises four acts and one intermission.

Acts I and II are timed at 75 minutes. A 35-minute intermission follows Act II.

Acts III and IV are timed at 54 minutes. The Saturday matinee broadcast performance ends with Act IV’s final notes.

Music Director Emeritus James Levine conducts all performances, including the Saturday matinee broadcast, of Nabucco. His birthplace is Cincinnati, Hamilton County, southwestern Ohio. The American conductor debuted in the Metropolitan Opera’s 1971 production of Tosca by Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini (Dec. 22, 1858-Nov. 29, 1924). This season James Levine also conducts Idomeneo by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Jan. 27, 1756-Dec. 5, 1791) and L’Italiana in Algeri by Gioachino Antonio Rossini (Feb. 29, 1792-Nov. 13, 1868).

Plácido Domingo appears in the title role for most December performances and for both January performances, including the Saturday matinee broadcast. He was born in Madrid, central Spain. The globally acclaimed Spanish baritone/tenor debuted at the Metropolitan Opera in 1968 as Maurizio in Adriana Lecouvreur by Francesco Cilea (July 23, 1866-Nov. 20, 1950). Plácido Domingo also appears this season in another baritone role as Giorgio Germont in Verdi’s La Traviata.

Plácido Domingo shares the title role this season with Željko Lučić, who appears in the Dec. 27 and Dec. 30 performances. Born in Zrenjanin, Vojvodina, northern Serbia, Željko Lučić debuted at the Metropolitan Opera in 2006 as Barnaba in La Gioconda by Italian opera composer Amilcare Ponchielli (Aug. 31, 1834-Jan. 16, 1886). The Serbian operatic baritone also appears this season in the title role of Verdi's Rigoletto and as Jochanaan in Salome by Richard Georg Strauss (June 11, 1864-Sept. 8, 1949).

Liudmyla Monastyrska appears as Abigaille, the emotive princess who discovers that she is actually the daughter of Hebrew slaves and not the elder daughter of Babylonian King Nabucco. Liudmyla Monastyrska’s birthplace is Kiev, north central Ukraine. The Ukrainian lirico-spinto (“pushed lyric”) soprano debuted at the Metropolitan Opera in 2012 in the title role of Verdi’s Aida. She also reprises her debut role for the 2016-2017 season’s production of Aida.

Liudmyla Monastyrska appears in most December performances and in both January performances, including the Saturday matinee broadcast, of Nabucco. She shares the role of Abigaille this season with Tatiana Melnychenko. The Russian soprano of Ukrainian descent makes her Metropolitan Opera debut with her Dec. 27 performance.

Jamie Barton appears as Fenena, Babylonian King Nabucco’s real younger daughter who converts to Judaism for love of Ismaele, nephew of the King of Jerusalem. She was born in Rome, Floyd County, northwestern Georgia. The American mezzo-soprano debuted at the Metropolitan Opera in 2009 as the Second Lady in Die Zauberflöte (“The Magic Flute”). This season Jamie Barton also appears as Ježibaba in Rusalka by Czech composer Antonín Leopold Dvořák (Sept. 8, 1841-May 1, 1904).

Jamie Barton appears in most December performances and in both January performances, including the Saturday matinee broadcast, of Nabucco. She shares the role of Fenena this season with Nancy Fabiola Herrera, who appears in the Dec. 27 performance.

Born in Caracas, north central coastal Venezuela, to Canarian parents, Nancy Fabiola Herrera debuted at the Metropolitan Opera in 2015 as Suzuki in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. The Spanish mezzo-soprano also appears this season as Maddalena in Verdi’s Rigoletto and as Herodias in Richard Strauss’s Salome.

Russell Thomas appears as Ismaele, the King of Jerusalem’s nephew who forms a love triangle with Babylonian Princess Fenena and Abigaille, purportedly King Nabucco’s older daughter but actually the daughter of Hebrew slaves. Born in Miami, Miami-Dade County, southeastern Florida, Russell Thomas debuted at the Metropolitan Opera in 2005 as a Royal Herald in Verdi’s Don Carlo.

The American operatic tenor appears as Ismaele in most December performances and in both January performances, including the Saturday matinee broadcast. Russell Thomas shares the role of Ismaele this season with Adam Diegel. Born in Seoul, northwestern South Korea, to a German American father and a Korean mother, Adam Diegel makes his Metropolitan Opera debut with his Dec. 27 appearance as Ismaele.

Dmitry Belosselskiy appears as Zaccaria, the High Priest of the Jews who curses King Nabucco with divine vengeance and later accepts the broken Babylonian king’s remorseful promise to rebuild the Temple of Jerusalem and to worship the God of the Israelites. He was born in Pavlograd, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, eastern Ukraine. Dmitry Belosselskiy reprises his 2011 Metropolitan Opera debut role as Zaccaria. The Ukrainian bass also appears this season as Ramfis in Verdi’s Aida.

Operabase, an online database, places Giuseppe Verdi at number one in a ranking of 1,281 most popular composers for the five seasons from 2011/2012 to 2015/16. Nabucco places at 17 in the list of 2,658 most popular operas.

The Metropolitan Opera’s 2016 Repertory Report gives performance statistics through Oct. 31. Nabucco holds place 89, with 57 performances, for the period from first Met performance, Oct. 24, 1960, to last performance, Nov. 17, 2011. The Metropolitan Opera’s 2016-2017 season falls outside the report’s parameters.

The takeaway for Nabucco as the Jan. 7, 2017, Metropolitan Opera Saturday matinee broadcast is the love triangle of Ismaele, nephew of the King of Jerusalem, with his true love, Babylonian Princess Fenena, who converts to Judaism, and with Abigaille, the embittered Babylonian princess who finds peace before dying with her true heritage as the daughter of Hebrew slaves.

Verdi's Nabucco airs as the Jan. 7, 2017, Saturday matinee broadcast during the 2016-2017 Met Opera season: The Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera, via Facebook Dec. 12, 2016

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

The 2016-2017 Met Opera season performances of Verdi's Nabucco mark the fifth revival of Elijah Moshinsky's new staging, which debuted March 8, 2001, at Met Opera: Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera, via Twitter Dec. 12, 2016, @ https://twitter.com/MetOpera/status/808370837531357188

Verdi's Nabucco airs as the Jan. 7, 2017, Saturday matinee broadcast during the 2016-2017 Met Opera season: The Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera, via Facebook Dec. 12, 2016, @ https://www.facebook.com/MetOpera/photos/a.134969600532.229232.20807115532/10158003350470533/

For further information:

Ascarelli, Alessandra. “Cortesi, Antonio.” Dizionario Biografico Degli Italiani. Vol. 29. Rome, Italy: Istituto dell’Enciclopedia Italiana, 1983.
Available @ http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/antonio-cortesi_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/

"Composers: Composers Ranked by the Number of Performances of Their Operas Over the Five Seasons 2011/2012 to 2015/16." Operabase > Opera Statistics.
Available @ http://operabase.com/top.cgi?lang=en

Metropolitan Opera. “Live in HD: Nabucco.” YouTube. Dec. 21, 2016.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-C6qHsrFsU

Metropolitan Opera. “Nabucco: Trailer.” YouTube. Dec. 14, 2016.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI-2WxkJ5E8

Metropolitan Opera. “Nabucco: ‘Va, Pensiero.’” YouTube. Dec. 12, 2016.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cpc6netR30

The Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera. "Tune-in Alert! Listen live on our website or SiriusXM Radio at 7:25 PM ET to Verdi's Nabucco starring Placido Domingo in the title role under the baton of James Levine. Liudmyla Monastyrska is Abigaille, Jamie Barton is Fenena, and Dmitri Belosselskiy is the voice of the oppressed Hebrew people. bit.ly/1rqXQeJ Photo by Marty Sohl/Metropolitan Opera." Facebook. Dec. 12, 2016.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/MetOpera/photos/a.134969600532.229232.20807115532/10158003350470533/

Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera. "Tune-in Alert! Listen live to opening of #Nabucco w @PlacidoDomingo @jbartonmezzo, online & @SIRIUSXM 7:25PM ET!" Twitter. Dec. 12, 2016.
Available @ https://twitter.com/MetOpera/status/808370837531357188

“Performances Statistics Through October 31, 2016.” MetOpera Database > The Metropolitan Opera Archives > Repertory Report.
Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/Database%20Opera%20Statistics.xml

Sullivan, Jack. “Program Note: Giuseppe Verdi Nabucco.” The Metropolitan Opera > MetOpera Files > Season 2016-17. Jan. 7, 2017.
Available @ http://www.metopera.org/metoperafiles/season/2016-17/operas/nabucco/programs/010717%20Nabucco.pdf

Tarling, Nicholas. Orientalism and the Operatic World. Lanham MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015.