Nabucco premiered at La Scala in 1842. It is Giuseppe Verdi's third opera of the 37 he wrote over a period of 54 years. His early operas are sometimes neglected in favor of the middle and late period works, but they contain some of his most beautiful and singable music, and so it is with Nabucco. This is what singers work for, to revel in the sweeping and beautiful vocal lines he composes.
The biblical story pf King Nebuchadnezzar (Nabucco) makes that of Il Trovatore appear simple. The setting is Solomon's temple in Jeruselem, the banks of the Euphrates, and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The plot focuses on Nabucco's imprisonment of the Hebrews, his struggle against his rebellious illegitimate daughter Abigaille, and his divine punishment and eventual salvation. A love triangle develops between Abigaille and her sister, Nabucco's legitimate daughter Fenena, and Fenena's jailer, Ismaele. Nabucco stops the executions of the Hebrews, and repents, the usurper Abigaille dies, and Ismaele and Fenena are free to wed.
Placido Domingo, Piero Cappuccilli, Ghena Dimitrova, and Lucia Valentina Terrani head the cast. Giuseppe Sinopili conducts the Chorus and Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin in this 1983 recording.
