Nabucco was a good performance of a great opera. At least the dress rehersal was good. I has 4 acts, and 4 main lead voices - soprano mezzo-soprano, tenor and baritone. The baritone did so well here in NC will be going to the Met in the big city to do this opera later this fall.
This Italian opera is Verdi's most famous, I belive, and has received more praise in recent years. One of the songs has practically become the Italian national anthem. The opera is set during the Babylonian captivity of the Israelites, during the time of the "hanging gardens of Babylon".
The acoustics of Blumenthal performing arts center are good. I was able to sit in the first of three balcony tiers, where I could see all of the orchestra pit. It was difficult to source most of the instruments which I guess is by design with an orchestra pit. It is amazing how loud the flute is - it figured prominently in this opera. Cellos and bass were beautiful, and the clarinet doubled the flute often. This opera has a large chorus in many scenes and several pieces were really choral pieces. In the first act the chorus did not seem to project nearly enough, and were drowned out by the orchestra. There was one scene I really liked where all 4 main voices were sung on stage at the same time.
This was an emotional story with emotional music, thus its real popularity. Its nice to get a reality check of live music in a classical tradition.
