July 22, 2020 – Along with Aida, which is the most popular and most performed opera title of the Split Summer Festival, Nabucco will be performed twice by the Croatian National Theater Split opera at the 66th Split Summer Festival.
Namely, Dalmatinski Portal writes that in addition to this year’s premiere performance on Tuesday, July 21, Nabucco will be performed on Thursday, July 23, at the Peristyle. The performances are directed by maestro Jure Bucevic for the first time, and the play is directed by Georgij Par and Jelena Bosancic.
Along with the Orchestra, Choir and Ballet of the Croatian National Theater in Split, the protagonists are singers who have presented themselves to the Split audience since the premiere of this Nabucco production. The title role of the Babylonian king Nabucco is Italian baritone David Cecconi, Boze Juric Pesic plays Ismael in the first performance, and in the second, the role will be sung by Brazilian tenor Max Jota. As Abigaille, we will again watch and listen to soprano Daniela Schillaci, already well known in Split. Ivica Cikes and Bozo Zupic will take turns in the role of Zaccaria, Antonija Teskera will be played by Fenena, and. Mate Akrap, Vinko Maroevic and Branka Plestina Stanic will play the roles of Priests, Abdall and Anna.
The peristyle performance of the Nabucco opera was the first music and stage production made exclusively for the open stage at the Imperial Square in front of the Split Cathedral. Verdi’s masterpiece premiered at the Peristyle a total of six times. This summer, under the musical direction of maestro Jure Bucevic, who is making his debut as the Nabucco conductor, we will watch a production that premiered in 2018 and is directed by Georgij Paro and Jelena Bosancic.
Nabucco is an opera that has permanently established Giuseppe Verdi’s reputation as a great opera composer.
“With this opera, my artistic career really begins,” said Verdi himself.
The four-act opera, composed in 1814 on a libretto by Temistocle Soler, is based on the Old Testament books On Kings, Jeremiah, Lamentations, and Daniel, and plays by Auguste Anicet-Bourgeois and Francis Cornu. The historical events of the expulsion of the Jews by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar are the backdrop to a romantic and political plot. The choral aria Va pensiero is certainly the most popular in opera and, as such, has become a recognizable and unavoidable part of the general culture as an expression of the general longing of peoples for freedom.
In addition to the conductor and director, the author’s team consists of set designer Dinka Jericevic, costume designer Sonja Obradovic (according to the ideas of Irena Susac and Leo Kulas), choreographers Miljenko Vikic and Ljiljana Gvozdenovic, choirmaster Frane Kuss, lighting designer Srdan Barbaric, and stage movement author Ljiljana Gvozdenovic.
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