![]() ![]() (In fact, the 1963 Lyric production of Nabucco was dedicated to the recent death of the grand dame of Chicago opera, Rosa Raisa, whose Serjan-like voice gave her the nickname “Raisa de Roofa”.) The role of Abigaille is made to showcase such a voice. Serjan has a tremendously powerful and intense dramatic soprano voice. Verdi’s music and the story of the 585 BC destruction of the temple of Jerusalem with the subsequent captivity of the Israelites by the Assyrians of King Nebuchadnezzar also brings some of the strongest dramatic singing you are likely to hear.Īt the top of the strong dramatic singing list is Tatiana Serjan as the warrior princess Abigaille.Ĭritics and audience members alike utter her name in the same breath as the name “Maria Callas”.Īnd the comparison is neither hype nor hyperbole. ![]() Their words echo the cries of the persecuted people of God in today’s middle east.Īnd their prayers echo the words of Nabucco’s people of God gloriously soaring from the Civic Opera House stage to sold-out houses. The Reverend James Meeks said, “if there is anything Chicago needs and desires it’s prayer.” The Reverend Donovan Price says, “Prayer is our weapon of warfare.” Out of this plagued life came his first triumph, Nabucco, the tale of the people of God, enslaved by the forces of evil, the conversion of their enemies, and their eventual deliverance through faithful prayer alone.Ĭertainly it was no coincidence that the Lyric Opera’s third production of this great work coincided with Chicago’s seventh annual Pray Chicago, an event bringing together Chicago’s people of God of all colors, young and old, united in one faithful heart, petitioning the Almighty to deliver their community from their captivity by the forces of gang violence and intimidation. ![]() ![]() The twenty-eight-year old’s wife and two children had suddenly died, his own health was precarious, and his most recent opera had been a dismal failure. Prayer was certainly a large part of the young composer’s life in 1841. ![]()
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