Nabucco

'Fly away, thought, and settle on the rolling hills, where warm and soft blows the sweet breeze of our native land!'. These are the opening lines of the famous Slave Chorus from Nabucco. The words of the Hebrews in Babylonian exile immediately acquired a political charge for the Italian audience in Verdi's time. In one fell swoop, the Slave Chorus grew into a patriotic hymn and a symbol for the gradual unification of the Italian nation. Today, identity, religion and nationalism form an explosive cocktail. That is why Brazilian director Christiane Jatahy reads Verdi's biblically inspired epic in a radically different way. Because how unifying is an opera in which a high priest takes his people hostage through religious fanaticism and a king declares himself god? Jatahy's new production of Nabucco resonates with the contemporary geopolitical reality of a new imperialism, forced migrations and displacement. Both the performers and the audience are literally confronted with a mirror and asked how we can change the course of history.