Nabucco 2014Chisinau National Opera, Moldova
Read more about the opera Nabucco
A criticism that is frequently levelled at the Ellen Kent organization is that they rely too much on a small repertoire of extremely popular operas that are repeated endlessly. Of course they perform to many audiences around the country who have no other professional opera available to them. New audiences need to be rebuilt constantly, so the eight fixtures in the programme will always dominate - four by Puccini (Bohème, Butterfly, Tosca and Turandot); three by Verdi (Rigoletto, Traviata and Aïda) as well as Carmen. So it is refreshing when they also present a work like Nabucco, which is a rarity in Scotland - never produced by Scottish Opera or seen at the Edinburgh International Festival, and generally left to the amateur groups. But the principal roles, particularly Abigaille, are very difficult to cast. Given their plethora of strong voices, Nabucco is a work that suits the Moldovan company well.
The casts are as advertised in the company's publicity material.
Performance Cast
- Nabucco Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon
- Ismaele nephew of Zedekiah, King of Jerusalem
- Zaccaria High Priest of the Hebrews
- Abigaille a slave, supposed elder daughter of Nabucco
- Fenena daughter of Nebuchadnezzar
- Anna Zaccaria's sister
- High Priest of Baal
- Abdallo an elderly officer in the King of Babylon's service