(Credit Rudy Amisano and Teatro alla Scala)
Let's count our heroes: Giuseppe Verdi and Bartolomeo Merelli, the Scala intendant who urged a broken-spirited, opera-dejected Verdi to take a chance on Temistocle Solera's libretto based on Nabuchodonosor, a 6th century BC Babylonian despot. We'll also add Leo Nucci and Nicola Luiotti to the list for their recent, prodigious performances at La Scala in a modern, new Daniele Abbado-signed Nabucco that ran through February. After tonight's final replications in Milan, the opera, in-coproduction with the Royal Opera House, will bow in April at Covent Garden with the Nucci/Luisotti Made in Italy perfection, which is why we were honored to write a piece for The Royal Opera House's website about opera's greatest Italian baritone the in the post-Cappuccili era.