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'.

Director Carrie Cracknell reinvigorates one of opera’s most popular works with a new staging that modernizes Bizet’s tale of deadly passion. Mezzo-soprano Aigul Akhmetshina stars in the irresistible title role, alongside tenor Piotr Beczala as her lover Don Jose. Daniele Rustioni conducts.