The National Opera completes the 2022/23 season with Verdi’s Nabucco, conducted by Paolo Carignani and directed by Leo Muscato. The impressive production will be presented for four unique performances on July 26, 27, 29 and 30, 2023 at Irodeion, with Dimitris Platanias and Tassi Christogiannopoulos in the title role.

Tickets go on sale on Monday, June 26 at 12.00 at the Athens Festival offices and online at aefestival.gr & viva.gr.

This work established Verdi as the most important Italian composer of the 19th century, while simultaneously becoming a symbol of the struggle for Italian unification. Although Verdi was not the first composer to set strongly political texts to music, Italy’s leading composer nevertheless made a difference with his musical genius – it is what gives his operas a distinctly political dimension and the power to rouse crowds .

The case

Nabucco is considered one of Giuseppe Verdi’s greatest operas.

The case concerns the captivity of the Jews by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. When, in his arrogance, he asks everyone to worship him as a god, he is struck by lightning.

When he recognizes Jehovah as the only true god, he regains his senses, frees the Jews and consents to the relationship of his real daughter, Fenena, with Ishmael, nephew of the king of Jerusalem.

Abigail, who usurped the power of Nabucco, also turns to Jehovah in the end.

Famous from the opera is the libretto “Va, pensiero” also known as Chorus of the Jewish Slaves.

The coefficients

The direction is signed by Leo Muscato, one of the dynamically rising Italian opera directors, who has distinguished himself in works by Verdi and Puccini, and has presented great successes in leading Italian opera theaters (Rome, Venice, Florence, Turin, etc.). The director states that in the production of Nabucco, “there is no desire to conform to historical accuracy: the aesthetic identity of the sets and costumes aims to render an abstract place and time in order to focus attention on the essence” and continues : “The tragedy of the Jews who were deported and enslaved is on the one hand reminiscent of the tragedy of the Nazi concentration camps, on the other hand it is very similar to the torture adopted in modern detention camps, such as Guantanamo.”

The production is directed, in his first collaboration with ELLS, by one of the world’s most important opera chief musicians, the Italian Paolo Carignani.

In the all-star cast we meet Greek and foreign protagonists with international recognition.

In the title role, two leading Greek baritones who excel abroad, Dimitris Platanias and Tassis Christogiannopoulos – who makes his debut in the role – alternate. Abigail is performed by two great high-voices of our time, Ekaterina Semenchuk and Maria Jose Siri, while the role of Zacharias is played by the excellent bass-voices Vitaly Kovaliov and Petros Magoulas. With them are the distinguished singles Yiannis Christopoulos, Konstantinos Klironomos, Elena Maximova, Marisia Papalexiou, Vangelis Maniatis, Yiannis Kalyvas and Evita Chioti. The Orchestra and the Choir of the Greek Orthodox Church participate.