Is Nabucco is my favourite Verdi opera? No, I find La Traviata moves me more and that Don Carlo and especially Otello are more concise dramatically. That said, it is Verdi's first masterpiece for a reason, the music is really wonderful, whether in Dio Di Guida, the big Act 3 duet between Nabucco and Abaigaille or in Va Pansiero. However, I was disappointed by this production, while not irredeemable of the six or seven or so productions seen(the best being the 1985 La Scala production) this is my least favourite by a significant margin.
Are there redeeming values? Yes, surprisingly even for productions I dislike there is always a redeeming quality or two. I really want to praise Daniel Oren's conducting, his reading is one of real sensitivity and also authority. There are two good performances also. Ambrogio Maestri I was looking forward to as Nabucco, having been impressed by his Falstaff and Tonio. As well as having a rich voice, Maestri's presence on stage is both commanding and moving, especially in Nabucco's Mad scene, which vocally and dramatically is by far the production's highlight. Even better is Paata Burchuladze's Zaccaria, his voice is not as dark as his Ramfis, Dosifei, Basilio or Il Re and at times is a little too tremulous, but it still is an expressive voice that has immense presence. His presence is a noble one too and his Italian is more idiomatic than I remember.
How I wish I could say the same for the other performances, but sadly I can't. Nino Surguladze as Fenena is actually not bad, her singing is strong and very beautiful particularly in her Act 4 prayer but the stage direction, which doesn't show much direction for the singers, doesn't allow for her to do much with the role dramatically. I really didn't care for the Ismaele of Nazzareno Antinori, he is a very stolid actor- though that is actually true of a lot of Ismaeles- and his high notes sounded forced to me. Nor for Andrea Gruber's Abaigaille, which is a big problem, I know how fiendishly difficult the role is but I never founding myself liking Gruber's voice and I never felt intimidated by or sympathised with Abaigaille as a result. Her voice is of a wide warbling quality, consequently some of her tuning up high sounded approximate to me and her runs lack clarity. Some of her pianissimo singing is nice but comes too late. Dramatically, I found that instead of the fearsome presence that Abaigaille ought to have that Gruber over-compensated too much.
Carlo Striuli's High Priest also lacked any kind of authority, sounding underpowered and his acting is very stand-and-deliver. Aside from Oren's conducting, the rest of the musical values are not as impressive. The orchestra certainly aren't bad, they do play beautifully but more warmth would have been more welcome, especially in the lower parts. The chorus are only acceptable, the ladies are good but it is not very well blended with the basses needing much more warmth and sonority in their sound, and they weren't very nuanced either. Va Pansiero was competent but not moving for me, despite the quite effective night back-drop. Dramatically, they are static and don't come across as very animated. The sound quality is good at times, but there are times like in the big duet between Maestri and Gruber that the sound favours the orchestra and drowns Gruber out.
Visually, it is not much better. The costumes are quite rich in colour, but there were so many styles and stuff that I was never sure what time period or even country the production was meant to be set in. The sets lack that sense of epic grandeur, the night back drop for Va Pansiero was effective and the raised platform was interesting, but everything else seemed sparse and dare I say bland. And I have to say Abaigaille's golden face was perplexing and when up close distracting as well. Speaking of the video directing, a lot of it was uninteresting and sometimes like in Act 3 rather static. The stage direction shows a lack of detailed direction for the singers, meaning that the singers stand there but haven't got much to make their characters properly human. Only Maestri and Burchuladze succeed, though I have seen better acting in all fairness from both.
So all in all, a disappointment, not as abominable as Amazon make them out to be and much better than 2003's Rigoletto, 2005's Don Carlos and 2009's Aida, but it is nowhere near one of my favourite Verdi opera productions either. 4/10 Bethany Cox
Are there redeeming values? Yes, surprisingly even for productions I dislike there is always a redeeming quality or two. I really want to praise Daniel Oren's conducting, his reading is one of real sensitivity and also authority. There are two good performances also. Ambrogio Maestri I was looking forward to as Nabucco, having been impressed by his Falstaff and Tonio. As well as having a rich voice, Maestri's presence on stage is both commanding and moving, especially in Nabucco's Mad scene, which vocally and dramatically is by far the production's highlight. Even better is Paata Burchuladze's Zaccaria, his voice is not as dark as his Ramfis, Dosifei, Basilio or Il Re and at times is a little too tremulous, but it still is an expressive voice that has immense presence. His presence is a noble one too and his Italian is more idiomatic than I remember.
How I wish I could say the same for the other performances, but sadly I can't. Nino Surguladze as Fenena is actually not bad, her singing is strong and very beautiful particularly in her Act 4 prayer but the stage direction, which doesn't show much direction for the singers, doesn't allow for her to do much with the role dramatically. I really didn't care for the Ismaele of Nazzareno Antinori, he is a very stolid actor- though that is actually true of a lot of Ismaeles- and his high notes sounded forced to me. Nor for Andrea Gruber's Abaigaille, which is a big problem, I know how fiendishly difficult the role is but I never founding myself liking Gruber's voice and I never felt intimidated by or sympathised with Abaigaille as a result. Her voice is of a wide warbling quality, consequently some of her tuning up high sounded approximate to me and her runs lack clarity. Some of her pianissimo singing is nice but comes too late. Dramatically, I found that instead of the fearsome presence that Abaigaille ought to have that Gruber over-compensated too much.
Carlo Striuli's High Priest also lacked any kind of authority, sounding underpowered and his acting is very stand-and-deliver. Aside from Oren's conducting, the rest of the musical values are not as impressive. The orchestra certainly aren't bad, they do play beautifully but more warmth would have been more welcome, especially in the lower parts. The chorus are only acceptable, the ladies are good but it is not very well blended with the basses needing much more warmth and sonority in their sound, and they weren't very nuanced either. Va Pansiero was competent but not moving for me, despite the quite effective night back-drop. Dramatically, they are static and don't come across as very animated. The sound quality is good at times, but there are times like in the big duet between Maestri and Gruber that the sound favours the orchestra and drowns Gruber out.
Visually, it is not much better. The costumes are quite rich in colour, but there were so many styles and stuff that I was never sure what time period or even country the production was meant to be set in. The sets lack that sense of epic grandeur, the night back drop for Va Pansiero was effective and the raised platform was interesting, but everything else seemed sparse and dare I say bland. And I have to say Abaigaille's golden face was perplexing and when up close distracting as well. Speaking of the video directing, a lot of it was uninteresting and sometimes like in Act 3 rather static. The stage direction shows a lack of detailed direction for the singers, meaning that the singers stand there but haven't got much to make their characters properly human. Only Maestri and Burchuladze succeed, though I have seen better acting in all fairness from both.
So all in all, a disappointment, not as abominable as Amazon make them out to be and much better than 2003's Rigoletto, 2005's Don Carlos and 2009's Aida, but it is nowhere near one of my favourite Verdi opera productions either. 4/10 Bethany Cox
