The Met Opera Live in HD to Screen Verdi's NABUCCO at Ridgefield Playhouse

The Ridgefield Playhouse and Craig's Fine Jewelry Live in HD Series presents a live screening of The Met Opera Live in HD: Verdi's Nabucco on Saturday, January 7 at 12:55 p.m.

The legendary Plácido Domingo brings another new baritone role to the Met under the baton of his longtime collaborator James Levine. Liudmyla Monastyrska is Abigaille, the warrior woman determined to rule empires, and Jamie Barton is the heroic Fenena. Dmitri Belosselskiy is the stentorian voice of the oppressed Hebrew people. The success of Verdi's third opera, a stirring drama about the fall of ancient Jerusalem at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar (Nabucco), catapulted the 28-year-old composer to international fame. The music and Verdi himself were subsumed into a surge of patriotic fervor culminating in the foundation of the modern nation of Italy. Specifically, the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves ("Va, pensiero"), in which the Israelites express their longing for their homeland, came to stand for the country's aspirations for unity and that exciting era in Italian history, the Risorgimento, or "Resurgence."

Solera's libretto takes some liberties with biblical history, and the characters other than the title role are dramatic inventions. But the story as a whole stays close to events as they are related in Jewish scriptures: primarily Jeremiah, as well as 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, Daniel, and the Psalms. The first part takes place around the destruction of the first temple in Jerusalem in 586 B.C., with the remainder of the opera set in various locations in the city of Babylon.

Craig's Fine Jewelry Live in HD Series is underwritten by Lori and John Berisford, Jeanne Cook, Anita and Nicholas Donofrio, Liz and Steven Goldstone, Sabina and Walter Slavin with Support from The Ridgefield Press and Whistle Stop Bakery.

For tickets ($25, $20 Members/Seniors, $15 Students - tickets are free for children 18 and under) call or visit the box office, 203-438-5795, or go online at ridgefieldplayhouse.org. The Ridgefield Playhouse, located at 80 East Ridge Road in Ridgefield, is a not for profit 501 (c)(3) whose mission is to present a variety of performing arts to the community and the surrounding area that they can enjoy and experience at a varied price point.

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