"Verdi's NABUCCO, A triumph of Staging, Musicianship and Commitment"26 July 2015133 mins
NABUCCO may be Verdi's first masterpiece, and not just because of that amazing Chorus of Hebrews which is justly beloved by everyone who hears it. Dramatically, this opera is tightly constructed, with believable characters in an intense conflict over values and beliefs. And Verdi's music, however early in his career, however distant from triumphs like LA FORSA DEL DESTINO or AIDA, is highly animated, revealing inner turmoil and outer passions with beauty and economy. The ensembles are especially impressive, building to satisfying heights of emotional release for the singers and the audience. And Placido Domingo is a wonder to behold and hear. Even though his original voice was baritone, which he managed to transform into a tenor voice, he doesn't SOUND like a baritone to me. B-U-T his performance is so committed, so deeply interfused with Verdi's music, so generously integrated to the younger singers around him, that the waters part.
Starring the exquisite coloratura soprano Emma Matthews as the innocent girl priestess Lakmé, and superb tenor Aldo Di Toro as the love-struck Gerald, the story tackles religion and cross-cultural love against a backdrop of British rule in India in the mid-19th century.
As renowned for its harmonious overture as for its romantic storybook characters, this three-act masterwork features some of the composer’s most groundbreaking and unforgettable music, as well as a theme the young Wagner would revisit again and again later in his career—the redemptive and transcendent power of a woman’s love.
Two mystical beings emerge from the scenery, embarking on a journey through Gallup— Na'nízhoozhí in the Navajo language— before melting back into the desert at nightfall.
The painter Lili Elbe was the first person to have gender confirmation surgery in the 1930s. The homonymous opera is a glimpse into the life of Lili Elbe and her wife Gerda Wegener (also a famous painter) through Lili's transition at a time when such surgery was still completely uncharted territory.
Nabucco - live from Metropolitan Opera, June 2002. On its surface, Nabucco is about the epic struggle of Zaccaria and the Jews suppressed by Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar and his vengeful daughter, Abigaille.
Berlioz’s colossal masterpiece requires stupendous forces—dozens of soloists, enormous chorus, orchestra and ballet, a superb conductor who understands the uniqueness of the score—plus a production that does visual justice to the work.
During World War I, in an unnamed country, a soldier named Tamino is sent by the Queen of the Night to rescue her daughter Pamina from the clutches of the supposedly evil Sarastro.
Young María, the embodiment of tango, leaves the outskirts of Buenos Aires and tries her luck in the chaotic downtown, where she triumphs in dark places ruled by crime and debauchery, unaware that a menacing presence stalks her, seeking her doom and death.
A dead woman wanders through the shadowy space between memory and reality, tracing the lines of her identity through the land she once walked—an immigrant in death as in life.
In order to close the case files on over a dozen disappearances, a persistent detective, a bereaved senator, and a skeptical prison warden agree to the request of a convicted serial killer - Jim Gardener - granting him a live television interview in exchange for the locations of his remaining victims.
The story of the modern Los Angeles film industry as a series of monologues. The monologues are delivered by various characters, including a writer, a director, a producer, an actress, and a soccer mom.
Itso, about 35, drives a special ambulance called a 'corpse-van'. His job is to pick up the bodies of the recently deceased and transport them to the morgue.
In Matt Braunger's stand-up special, he reveals why single men are so creepy, describes the drunken antics he observed as a bartender and details a surprisingly stressful Bingo victory.
Who needs school, who needs baseball, and who needs friends? That's the attitude of high school delinquent, Taishi Fura, who became a loner after falling out with his peers.
Humpback Whales takes audiences to Alaska, Hawaii and the Kingdom of Tonga for a close-up look at how these whales communicate, sing, feed, play and take care of their young.
This documentary feature pulls back the curtain on the world of ‘working class’ rappers. The film spotlights independent artists struggling to find a balance between making a living and pursuing their art alongside the never-ending saga of age and relevance.
ErOddity(s) 2 follows the lives of several gay youths and adults as they discover a world of the odd, the erotic and the supernatural, all of it in three short films.
45-year-old Rieke Bauer wants to work for the travel company run by her family. Because she can drive and has no problems with longer routes, she is hired as a bus driver.
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Have you watched Verdi Nabucco yet? What did you think about it?
