Giuseppe Verdi: Nabucco
La Scala, Milan
La Scala Orchestra and Chorus
Nicola Luisotti, conductor
CAST: Leo Nucci (Nabucco); Liudmyla Monastyrska (Abigaille); Veronica Simeoni (Fenena); Alexander Antonenko (Ismaele); Vitaly Kovalyov (Zaccaria); Tatyana Ryaguzova (Anna); Giuseppe Veneziano (Abdallo); Ernesto Panariello (High Priest of Baal)
Verdi's first hit opera comes to us in a 2013 production from the same, historic theater where its world premiere was staged in 1842. It's one of many Verdi operas in which his patriotic followers found a timely political agenda woven into an exotic, historical context, and its emotional chorus "Va Pensiero" became a sort of unofficial, Italian national anthem.