Known for Acting
A new staging of the opera curated by the Modenese theater in coproduction with I Teatri di Reggio Emilia, directed by Cristina Pezzoli, the scenes by Giacomo Andrico, the costumes by Andrea Grazia and the lights by Mauro Panizza. Pier Giorgio Morandi conducts at the helm of the Filarmonica of the Italian Opera Bruno Bartoletti and the choir of the Coro Lirico Association of Città di Piacenza - Teatro Comunale di Modena. Le Villi was the first work for the theater composed by Giacomo Puccini and constituted the decisive step towards his glory as an international opera artist. The opera, which lasts an hour and a half, was performed for the first time at the Teatro Dal Verme in Milan on 31 May 1884. The Italian libretto by Ferdinando Fontana is based on the story Les Willis that Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr developed his turn from the ballet Giselle, music by Adolphe Adam on text by Théophile Gautier (1841).
Very nice set and costumes by Mauro Carosi. The procuction is well staged in the relatively small scene at Parma by Joseph Franconi Lee. Here's a performance that really works.Everything seems just right, but if you MUST have the top soloists (Pavarotti, Domingo...), look elsewhere. However, I think that the ones here (Susanna Branchini (Aida), Mariana Pentcheva (Amneris), Walter Fraccaro (Radames), Alberto Gazale (Amonasro), Carlo Malinverno (Il Re di Egitto) do a fantastic job. Also pluses for the ballet and the video production.
Live performance at Teatro Carlo Felice di Genova, June 2004. Original stage production by Operhaus Zurich. DVD: Dynamic, live recording Cat: 33465. Nabucco (short for Nabucodonosor, English Nebuchadnezzar) is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera, based on the Biblical story and the 1836 play by Auguste Anicet-Bourgeois and Francis Cornue. It is VerdiÕs third opera and the one which is considered to have permanently established his reputation as a composer. Nabucco follows the plight of the Jews as they are assaulted, conquered, and subsequently exiled from their homeland by the Babylonian King Nabucco (in English, Nebuchadnezzar). The historical events are used as background for a romantic and political plot.
