This weekend brings Seattle Opera’s first-ever staging of the early Verdi breakthrough. Here’s an introduction to Nabucco I wrote for Washington National Opera a few seasons ago:
Verdi composed more than half of his entire oeuvre for the stage in the mere dozen years between his debut opera and Rigoletto (1851), generally considered the turning point when “early Verdi” morphed into a fully mature master.
And an audio preview I wrote for the same production can be found here.
UPDATE: My review has now been posted here.