Saddam Hussein has now taken on a new role in his career, he is taking centre stage in an Australian production of Verdi's opera "Nabucco".
The opera, opened at Sydney Opera House this week, tells the biblical story of Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar driving the people of Jerusalem out of the Holy Temple; and his power struggle with his daughter Abigaille, whom he adopted when she was a slave.
The director, David Freeman, is quoted as saying:
"It's trying to give edge to a work which once had an edge, but that edge was Italian politics..It's making it about the politics of today."
Freeman has cast Nebuchadnezzar as Saddam in his opening appearance on stage; wearing a gun, hat, gangster suit and mustache.
In the final appearance he is portrayed as a crazed figure, with shaggy hair and a beard.
Freeman said:
"I came across a few years ago ... a poster in the style of a painted Hollywood poster of the 1930s ... of Saddam Hussein as Nebuchadnezzar. In his chariot with four white horses charging out into the desert and him with Nebuchadnezzar's bow in his arm but there's also an Exocet (missile) and a helicopter and a destroyer in the picture as well."
Adding:
"To be an absolute ruler and a very tyrannical ruler who even was killing members of his own family and then have your world reduced to virtually a coffin underground, that is a Shakespearean metaphor..It's like King Lear."
The opera will continue until August 12.
No comments:
Post a Comment