Fenena
Live performance at Teatro Carlo Felice di Genova, June 2004. Original stage production by Operhaus Zurich. DVD: Dynamic, live recording Cat: 33465. Nabucco (short for Nabucodonosor, English Nebuchadnezzar) is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera, based on the Biblical story and the 1836 play by Auguste Anicet-Bourgeois and Francis Cornue. It is VerdiÕs third opera and the one which is considered to have permanently established his reputation as a composer. Nabucco follows the plight of the Jews as they are assaulted, conquered, and subsequently exiled from their homeland by the Babylonian King Nabucco (in English, Nebuchadnezzar). The historical events are used as background for a romantic and political plot.
Mere Jeanne
Based on a true story, the "Dialogues des Carmelites" sets the life of the Carmelites nuns at the dawn of the French Revolution. “Robert Carsen's production is effective in its simplicity, allowing the drama to speak for itself. Dagmar Schellenberger compellingly conveys Blanche's journey from distress to acceptance… Anja Silja's portrayal of the old Prioress is outstanding, with its disturbing transformation from serene wisdom to terrified, blasphemous, near-madness as death approaches. ...Riccardo Muti and the La Scala orchestra in magnificent form, captured in magnificent sound. Ultimately, it is the final scene, with its multiple executions, that makes or breaks a production of Dialogues. Carsen's allegorical solution is both elegant and deeply moving.” BBC Music Magazine, September 2007
