Falvetti, Nabucco

In the last five years, few works have created such intense emotion in the public as the rediscovery of the Diluvio Universale by Michelangelo Falvetti (1642-1692). 

The incredible beauty of the music of this composer, completely forgotten until now, has deeply moved all those who have approached it. Encouraged by this success, the passionate conductor Leonardo Garcia Alarcon decided to create Nabucco, another previously unseen work, composed in 1683 by Michelangelo Falvetti for the cathedral of Messina. It announces Giuseppe Verdi’s first masterpiece, which was composed 130 years later. Falvetti’s Nabucco is halfway between a historical oratorio and a dramma per musica. One of its major characters is Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, who invaded Jerusalem and deported its population. This Nabucco could be seen as a political gesture of resistance of the Sicilians against Spanish oppression.

The richness and the impact of Falvetti’s music heard in the Diluvio universal is constantly equaled and even surpassed in Nabucco. The introduction evoking the river Euphrates carries the listener into a musical experience where the most varied baroque instruments (harp, theorbos) play alongside the ney and the kaval (oblique flutes) with their oriental sonorities, the duduk (a double reed instrument like the oboe) and Iranian percussions. The magnificent seven voice choruses are a demonstration of the technical and harmonic splendor which deeply affects the listener. Leonardo Garcia Alarcon’s commitment enables these voices to develop fully and gives full force to the vengeful choruses of the People of Israel, while moving audiences to tears with the soloists’ lamentations… Like Cavalli’s Elena, last year’s revelation at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, which was then presented in Versailles, with great success, Leonardo Garcia Alarcon’s electrifying direction and the total commitment of his interpreters (an intense choir and admirable soloists) magnificently serve Nabucco, its rich and contrasted, subtle and sensuous score, which revives the drama as a truly sacred opera!

Michelangelo Falvetti (1642-1692)

Nabucco
Oratorio sur un livret Vicenze Gattini

Fernando Guimarães, Nabucco
Alejandro Meerapfel, Daniele
Christopher Lowrey, Arioco
Caroline Weynants, Anania
Mariana Flores, Azaria
Lucia Martin Carton, Misaele
Matteo Bellotto, Eufrate
Capucine Keller, Superbia

Chœur de Chambre de Namur
Cappella Mediterranéa
Leonardo García Alarcón, Direction