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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

See Verdi’s ‘Nabucco’ on the big screen

Dan Webster

It isn't always possible for opera fans to attend performances at New York's Metropolitan Opera. The airline tickets alone would cost a fortune, never mind scoring tickets.

Here's the good news: You can see select Met Opera performances on a local movie screen. A perfect example: "Nabucco," an opera by the Italian master Giuseppe Verdi, will screen at 7 tonight at Regal Cinemas' Northtown Mall.

James Levine conducts The Met's orchestra, while Placido Domingo fills the role of the title character and soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska plays his willful daughter. The opera, Verdi's first unqualified success, was held its premiere in Milan, Italy, at La Scala in 1842.

Writing in the New York Times about the live performance, critic Zachary Woolfe said of the 76-year-old Spanish baritone Domingo: "His voice still has extraordinary volume and a warm, penetrating presence." As for Monastyrska, Woolfe wrote, "The smoldering, deliciously wild-toned soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska attacks the ferocious music for Abigaille, the Babylonian slave turned queen, as if she’s scaling a rock face with an ice ax."

The opera has a two hour, 35-minute running time, tickets are just $13.13 — and you don't have to drive to the airport.