Language: Italian
Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish

As the spectators take their seats, an impassive and mute man, hands in his pockets, embodies the motionless resistance on a bare stage that was initiated in 2013 in Taksim Square by Istanbul choreographer Erdem Gunduz. At the time of Nabucco's creation, it is not certain that Verdi himself was aware of the revolutionary aura that his opera would bear and that the famous choir “Va, pensiero” would become the hymn of the Risorgimento.

Nabucco is an Italian-language opera in four acts composed in 1841 by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera. The libretto is based on the biblical books of 2 Kings, Jeremiah, Lamentations, and Daniel, and on the 1836 play by Auguste Anicet-Bourgeois and Francis Cornu. However, Antonio Cortese's ballet adaptation of the play (with its necessary simplifications), given at La Scala in 1836, was a more important source for Solera than the play itself. Under its original name of Nabucodonosor, the opera was first performed at La Scala in Milan on 9 March 1842.

Nabucco is the opera that is considered to have permanently established Verdi's reputation as a composer. He commented that "this is the opera with which my artistic career really begins. And though I had many difficulties to fight against, it is certain that Nabucco was born under a lucky star."

The opera follows the plight of the Jews as they are assaulted, conquered and subsequently exiled from their homeland by the Babylonian king Nabucco (Nebuchadnezzar II). The historical events are used as background for a romantic and political plot. The best-known number from the opera is the "Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves" ("Va, pensiero, sull'ali dorate" / "Fly, thought, on golden wings"), a chorus that is regularly given an encore in many opera houses when performed today.

Director: Marie-Eve Signeyrole (Director), Roberto Rizzi Brignoli (Music Director)
Cast: Nikoloz Lagvilava (Nabucco), Mary Elizabeth Williams (Abigaille), Simon Lim (Zaccaria), Robert Watson (Ismaele), Victoria Yarovaya (Fenena), François Rougier (Abdallo), Jennifer Courcier (Anna), Alessandro Guerzoni (Gran Sacerdote), Lille Choir and National Orchestra, Dijon Opera Choir