Fri, Feb 13, 2026
Nabucco is one of the most famous operas ever written. However, in Christiane Jatahy's staging, it becomes more than just a story from the distant past: it becomes a mirror for today.
Below, you will discover five symbolic elements from the production that will help you step into that world.
Large tilting mirrors hang on the stage. You can see the reflection of the audience on the stage. This blurs a clear boundary: who is watching whom here? Is it the singers who tell the story, or is it us, as spectators who think, feel, and carry along with them? Nabucco invites you to recognize yourself in what you see.
This opera is not only about kings and rulers, but also about the community. The choir represents a collective of individuals: people who are often reduced to a single group, but who each have their own voice and position. The choir is the people. And that people is all of us.
Water flows onto the stage and fills the space. It acts as a third mirror, but also as a force that influences everything. Here, water represents occupation and destruction, something that invades and does not simply disappear again. What happens on stage leaves its mark.
The costumes are part of the set. At the center is an enormous dress, associated with power. What you wear can give you status, but it can also take it away. Power here is not fixed.
On stage, the camera is never neutral. It can control and manipulate, but it also does something else: it brings people closer. Through close-ups of choir members, you see faces, reactions, thoughts. The crowd breaks down into individuals. People who are not normally in the center become visible. They show the action from a different perspective.
This Nabucco does not make judgements, but opens up a space to watch, listen and understand. To power and community. Who speaks, who is seen and who is not?
Antwerp | Luxembourg
Giuseppe Verdi
