Nabucco is the opera that got Verdi back in the game after a long time away from composing, but its premiere almost didn't happen. Hear how it was saved and in an ironic twist of fate, how the opera shortened the career of the soprano who saved it.
On this week's episode of He Sang/She Sang, mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton and dramaturg Cori Ellison discuss Verdi's connection to the plight of the Hebrew slaves, why this year's revival at the Metropolitan Opera is so special and the cultural significance of "Va, pensiero." 
Cori Ellison's YouTube pick (Riccardo Muti, Opera di Roma)

Merrin Lazyan's YouTube pick (Plácido Domingo and Liudmyla Monastyrska, The Royal Opera)

This episode features excerpts from the following album:
Verdi: Nabucco (Deutsche Grammophon, 1983)— Piero Cappuccilli, baritone; Plácido Domingo, tenor; Evgeny Nesterenko, bass; Ghena Dimitrova, soprano; Lucia Valentini Terrani, mezzo-soprano; Chorus and Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin conducted by Giuseppe Sinopoli