Verdi: Nabucco
Nabucco(the real name isNabucodonosor, but no opera lover ever uses it) was Verdi's first big international success and got him back on the track composing operas after a series of family tragedies had made him decide to stop. It has one of his all-time hits, the great chorus "Va, pensiero," and a melodramatic story of a love triangle set against the background of the conquest of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar and the Hebrews' "Babylonian captivity." Tito Gobbi, one of the century's great singing actors, had aged vocally by the time this recording was made, but still powerfully portrays the Assyrian king who defies God, is driven mad, and recovers his sanity just in time to save the Jewish slaves and the young lovers from a mass execution. The cast and conducting are variable though generally good--with Elena Suliotis giving a burned-out, Callas-imitating performance--but this show is essentially Gobbi's.--Joe McLellan