Launch of Washington National Opera’s production
The Embassy of Italy/Italian Cultural Institute and Washington National Opera present a program highlighting WNO’s new production of Nabucco with director/set designer Thaddeus Strassberger and professor Francesco Ciabattoni (Georgetown University). This program celebrates Nabucco’s unique place in Italian culture and explores its political context in Verdi’s Italy. This Washington, D.C. premiere production runs from April 28-May 21 in the Kennedy Center Opera House. WNO artists Leo An (baritone) and Elizabeth Blancke-Biggs (soprano) will offer musical selections from the opera with piano accompaniment by Israel Gursky.
This event is free, but reservations are required.
MORE INFO:
Verdi and the Risorgimento
Nabucco
Thaddeus Strassberger
Francesco Ciabattoni
Official WNO Nabucco page: CLICK HERE
ON STAGE: April 28 – May 21, 2012
in collaboration with
DOORS OPEN AT 6:15 AND CLOSE AT 7:00PM PROMPTLY
RSVP
Please click on “Make a Reservation” by April 13, 2012 at 2 PM
The Reservation System will allow you to register until we reach
capacity or by the event’s date at 2:00 PM (whichever comes
first.)
PLEASE NOTE: RESERVATION IS REQUIRED FOR OUR EVENTS FOR SECURITY REASONS. A RESERVATION IS NOT A GUARANTEE OF A SEAT. OUR VENUE HAS LIMITED SEATING AND WE WILL ACCOMODATE GUESTS ON A FIRST-COME FIRST-SERVED BASIS. GUESTS WITHOUT SEATS ARE WELCOME TO STAND IF THEY LIKE.
PHOTO ID REQUIRED
VERDI and the RISORGIMENTO
Giuseppe Verdi was the most prominent Italian composer of the 19th century. Undoubted, his operas of the 1840s and 1850s were tied to the Italian nationalist and independentist movement of the Risorgimento (rebirth of Italy). The myth of Verdi as composer of the Risorgimento movement also led to the fact that his name was used as an acronym for V.E.R.D.I. (Vittorio Emanuele Re d’Italia) so that the slogan “Viva Verdi!” was used throughout Italy to secretly celebrate Vittorio Emanuele II, King of Sardinia with the auspice that he would become king of a unified Italy, as eventually happened.
Francesco Ciabattoni (Georgetown University) will give an insight on the influence of the Risorgimento in Verdi’s music.
NABUCCO
Verdi’s earliest works greatly inspired those who supported the Risorgimento. His 1842 opera Nabucco (librettist: Temistocle Solera) tells the story of the Babylonian King Nabucodonosor, a.k.a. Nabucco, who conquered the Kingdom of Judah around 586 BCE, and who subjected the inhabitants to his own rule. The parallels to the plight of nineteenth-century Italians living under Austrian and Bourbon rule were obvious, and the opera was largely interpreted as a metaphor for Italy’s own struggle against foreign oppression.
The quite intricate plot sees first the defeat of the Jews by Nabucco’s army. The Jews are deported to Babylon, and at a point they risk to be all slaughtered. Thanks to divine intervention, though, and the relentless efforts of the elected people, and particularly of a few heroes and heroines, the Jews are saved and given at last their freedom back. The Third Act of the opera is closed with the moving chorus ”Va Pensiero”, which was to become the unofficial hymn of the Italian Risorgimento, and still is one of the most beloved melodies in the national repertoire.
THADDEUS STRASSBERGER
The work of the American Director/Set Designer Thaddeus Strassberger was last seen at Washington National Opera in Ambroise Thomas’ Hamlet (2010). His career as director and designer was launched when he won the 2005 European Opera Directing Prize with his production of La Cenerentola for Opera Ireland and the Hessisches Staatstheater in Wiesbaden, Germany.
FRANCESCO CIABATTONI
Francesco Ciabattoni is Assistant Professor of Italian at Georgetown University. He received his PhD from the Johns Hopkins University and directed the Italian program at Dalhouse University. Among his publications are original poems and critical essays in international journals on such authors as Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Pasolini, Primo Levi, as well as a monograph titled Dante’s Journey to Polyphony (U of Toronto Press, 2010).
LOCATION:
Embassy of Italy/Italian Cultural Institute
3000 Whitehaven st Street NW
Washington, DC 20008