Reviewed by James Karas
A friend, who has never seen an opera asked me where I was going recently, and I said “Nabucco, live from the Met.”
Oh, “Va, pensiero,” he replied. Even people who rarely go to the opera know the great chorus from Nabucco by Giuseppe Verdi, even my friend who has never been to the opera and never expressed any interest in it. But recognizing “Va pensiero” or The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves as it is also known is an indicator of the fame of that part of the opera.
Quite right of course because Nabucco is more famous for its choruses than its arias and duets (and there are some superb ones) and no one can claim that it has been over-produced. It was popular in 1842 when it premiered at La Scala but it was mostly shelved after that until New York’s Metropolitan Opera produced it for the first time in 1960. It went back on the shelf until 2001 when it was produced by Elijah Moshinsky and conducted by James Levine. That production was revived in 2016 and again for the 2023-2024 season. For those who are keeping count, the Live from the Met telecast on January 6, 2024, was the 74th performance of the opera by the Metropolitan Opera.
The Met gives Nabucco a grand production with some of the best singers and of course the incomparable Met chorus under Chorus Master Donald Palumbo. The choruses of enslaved Hebrews are an integral part of the opera and “Va, pensiero” expresses the longing of the slaves in Babylon for their home, their native land, the beautiful land of Zion and the banks of the river Jordan. The plaintive tone of “Va, pensiero” contrasts with militaristic sentiments and and the different tones of the opera that go from fear to triumph.
Baritone George Gagnidze gives an outstanding performance as the arrogant king Nabucco who goes from sheer hubris (I am a god), to a brief mad scene, to a gentle convert to Judaism. A superb performance throughout.
Abigaille is the most interesting and treacherous role in the opera. She is the ambitious and vicious daughter of Nabucco until she finds out that she is a slave. She wants to clear the deck of Nabucco and his legitimate daughter and the Hebrews. It is a killer role but soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska has been singing the role in major opera houses for years. At 48 she is still in her prime, sings superbly and goes from evil and arrogance (kill everybody) to repentance, conversion, ingestion of poison and death.
Monastyrska’s Abigaille is a perfect foil for Fenena, Nabucco’s real daughter. Mezzo-soprano Maria Barakova is lovely, humane and has a superb voice. But Fenena does have a complex moral life. She is Babylonian, of course, held hostage by the Hebrews, falls in love with Ismaele (tenor SeokJong Baek), a Hebrew, (Abigaille is in love with him too) and releases the slaves held in the Temple. She is about to be executed and sings of heaven and God but with a lovely voice and being on the side of the good people we love her all the way and cheer her release.
The set by John Napier gives us an opera on a grand scale. The revolving stage presents some huge rocky walls that are the abode of the Hebrew prisoners. The stage revolves to show a monumental staircase, one of which leads to a throne high up with a head of a bull. This is Baal and where we see Babylonian power and grandeur.
Moshinsky’s grand conception under Revival Director J. Knighten Smit is stupendous and breathtaking. Whatever shortcomings young Verdi’s third opera may have, they are all subsumed by the grand conception and execution.
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Nabucco by Giuseppe Verdi (music) and Temistocle Solera (libretto) was shown Live in HD from the Metropolitan Opera on January 6, 2024, It will be reprised on February 24, 2024, at various Cineplex theatres. For more information go to www.cineplex.com/events
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