Nabucco

In 2023, Christiane Jatahy premiered her second opera, Nabucco (Giuseppe Verdi)

Verdi created his Nabucco at the time of the Austrian occupation of northern Italy, as a call for the national liberation struggle that would eventually lead to Italian unification. But the opera’s theme is biblical, telling the story of King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon and his invasion, occupation and subjugation of the Hebrew people.

Power, religion, the greedy oppression by tyrants over other peoples being exploited and torn away from their land, family relationships, stories of love and resistance are all on the agenda of this libretto, set in the past but unfortunately still reflecting the present.

And it is this present, this “today,” that Christiane Jatahy wants to bring to the stage, in a staging that confronts the stage, with its singers and the compelling presence of the chorus, with the present and the past, through the presence of live cameras and pre-recorded film clips. 

To tell this story, also as a reference to current occupations, wars and the violence caused by greed. 

Therefore, she brings people in refugee situations on scene. People who have experienced wars, who have fled from them and are here to tell this story, through the emotional and musical power of Verdi, together with the soloists and the choir, on stage and in the film. Without losing the complexity of the protagonists of this Nabucco – on the contrary, by bringing them to the present – it is essential to humanize the “ bad” Abgaille and look at her tragic trajectory in response to abandonment and betrayal. At the same time, it is important to keep room for the romantic impulse of Fenena and Ismael, but also to valorize their revolutionary encounter, as well as the rise and fall, in immense solitude, of the usurper Nabucco. And then there is Zaccaria, who uses the violence of manipulation, manipulation by religion.  In the end, there is no redemption. The struggle goes on. The music goes on. 

In a game of mirrors, in which everything can be illusory, power is a garment worn and lost; through the cracks in events, the images reveal the presence and reactions of those who live, see and make history happen, the people.

Nabucco

Musical direction and composition of the final orchestral intermezzo Antonino Fogliani

Stage direction Christiane Jatahy

Set design Thomas Walgrave and Marcelo Lipiani

Costumes An D’Huys

Lighting Thomas Walgrave

Video Batman Zavarese

Director of photography and camera (film) Paulo Camacho

Video system development Júlio Parente

Sound artist Pedro Vituri

Dramaturgy Clara Pons

Chorus Director Alan Woodbridge

Assistant director Marcelo Buscaino

Nabucco Nicola Alaimo / Roman Burdenko (June 22 and 27)

Abigaille Saioa Hernandez, Zaccaria Riccardo Zanellato, Ismaele Davide Giusti, Fenena Ena Pongrac, Anna Giulia Bolcato, Abdallo Omar Mancini

Il Gran Sacerdote William Meinert

Chœur du Grand Théâtre de Genève

Orchestre de la Suisse Romande

Production coordination Henrique Mariano

Production Grand Théâtre de Genève

Coproduction with Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, Opera Ballet Vlaanderen and Teatro della Maestranza de Séville

With the support of