Nabucco Live From the Metropolitan Opera to Newport Performing Arts Center

This grand, epic staging promises to draw opera lovers and newcomers alike, as ancient Babylon comes to life. Rulers challenge their gods, love struggles against empire, and religious revelation goes hand in hand with divine retribution. The score is filled with musical ideas showing Verdi’s ability to innovate operatic convention in the service of character development and psychological depth. Foreshadowing his mature works, “Nabucco” shows us the young composer as he is beginning to understand the full scope and power of his artistic vision. It would be the opera that brought fame to Verdi, and his chorus of the Hebrew slaves would go on to become the unofficial anthem of the Italian independence movement.In his Met role debut, Georgian baritone George Gagnidze stars as Nabucco, the imperious king of Babylon, alongside Ukrainian soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska reprising the role of his vengeful daughter Abigaille. Singing the lovers Fenena and Ismaele are Russian mezzo-soprano Maria Barakova, in her Met role debut, and renowned South Korean baritone-turned-tenor SeokJong Baek, in his company debut. Ukrainian bass Dmitry Belosselskiy repeats his celebrated portrayal of the high priest Zaccaria, and Italian maestro Daniele Callegari conducts the performance, which will feature the ultimate showcase for the Met Chorus, “Va, pensiero.”“Nabucco” combines historical fact, passages from the Bible, and the imagination of Verdi and his librettist, Temistocle Solera. While the text takes many liberties with biblical history and – with the exception of the title role – the characters are fictional creations, the overall story stays close to events as related in Jewish scriptures (primarily Jeremiah, the Second Book of Kings, the Second Book of Chronicles, Daniel, and the Psalms).The production is directed by Habib Azar, with two-time Grammy Award–winning soprano Angel Blue providing exclusive behind-the-scenes access and interviews with the cast and creative team during intermission. Elijah Moshinsky’s monumental staging was first performed at the Met on March 8, 2001, and last appeared in 2017. The creative team includes set designer John Napier, costume designer Andreane Neofitou, and lighting designer Howard Harrison.This live transmission is part of the Met’s award-winning “Live in HD” series, bringing world class opera to screens across the globe. The production is sung in Italian and will be broadcast live—as it happens—from the Met stage, in HD, to the Alice Silverman Theatre. Run time is approximately 2 hours 50 minutes with one intermission. Tickets range from $15.50 - $25.75 when purchased at the Newport Performing Arts Center box office (777 W Olive Street) or by phone. Online ticketing is also available (additional fee applies). To learn more, call 541-265-2782 or visit coastarts.org/events/met-nabucco

The Met: Live in HD is an award-winning series of live, high-definition cinema simulcasts. Oregon Coast audiences can enjoy the beauty, grandeur, and excitement of world-class opera, broadcast from the Metropolitan Opera stage directly to Newport Performing Arts Center’s big screen — and savor every delicious note through the unrivaled sound quality of our state-of-the-art Meyer Constellation Acoustic System. To learn more, visit www.coastarts.org/met