Verdi : Nabucco
Metropolitan Opera Chorus
Orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera, New York
James Levine
The cinema manager, welcoming the audience to tonight's screening, said "I don't know whether the Slaves' Chorus comes in the first half or the second, but please don't sing along!" which raised a bit of a chuckle, but the truth is, it's pretty tempting. Especially when the piece is reprised. Asked before the show started whether I thought it would be, I said that it depended on the audience, but hearing the cheer that went up for James Levine when he appeared on the podium, I reckoned the audience needed little to no persuasion in any event. It was good to hear the esteem and fondness the Met audience has for the outgoing Music Director, now oft-beset with illness, and all too rarely able to take up the baton for a series of opera performances. When he does make an appearance, it's clearly cherished, and with good reason, because diminished health or not, Levine always leaves his mark, and there's that little extra degree of something, energy, colour, vitality, vibrancy, call it what you will, that makes his performances into events.
What he brings to Verdi's score is much needed in Nabucco, which is a wonderful opera when it's well played (and sung), but really needs that extra level of commitment from all concerned, otherwise its absurdities, and the awkward patches of the young Verdi bridging the gap from late belcanto style to full blown High Romanticism, all stick out a bit too much. Get it right, though, as it mostly was tonight, and it's a high-octane rollercoaster of an opera, which is certainly what we experienced tonight. Elijah Moshinsky's 2001 production, the only one to have been seen in the "new" Met to date, makes eye-popping use of the famous revolving stage, with monumental facades effortlessly turned for scene changes, but otherwise, it's a fairly turgid affair, the singers being required mostly to just stand and deliver.
Russell Thomas was a bit on the unremittingly loud side as Ismaele, but it was a good, solid, tenor sound otherwise, and the role itself fades into the background rather quickly. For a Ukrainian bass, Dmitry Belosselskiy's voice was surprisingly a little unstable right at the bottom of the range, and Zaccaria's opening aria and cabaletta demand a more Rossinian touch than he seemed able to provide comfortably, but otherwise he had the right tone of authority and gravitas. The game stepped up several notches when it came to Jamie Barton's Fenena, mellow-voiced and lustrous, effortlessly clear and warmly expressive, making the most of what can seem a rather pallid role.
The transparency of Barton's reading contrasted excellently with Liudmyla Monastyrska's sulphurous Abigaïlle, not afraid of sounding harsh in the lowest part of her register, and providing an impressive variety of vocal colour in general throughout the extensive range Verdi demands of the role. She was also the only other singer able to draw and hold your attention when faced with Plácido Domingo's Nabucco, for Domingo was, as ever, master of the stage whenever he appeared. The longevity of Domingo's career remains as astonishing as ever, his recycling (back) into the baritone register as convincing vocally as his scenic presence remains dramatically. Even having to sing "Dio di Giuda" lying face down did nothing to diminish the plangency of the prayer, and only in the following cabaletta was there a moment of breathlessness undermining the voice a little. Otherwise, this was vintage Domingo, persuasive and commanding both vocally and scenically, and wholly complicit with his long-standing sparring partner, James Levine.
[Next : 13th February. N.B. This blog is being trolled by referral spam. It has no impact on you, the reader, since I don't publicise referral sites, but I'm getting more than a little annoyed with it, so at some point in the near future, I will be moving the blog. The new address will appear on the Twitter feed when it happens, so when a blank blog entry shows up, know that the new site will have opened up. Apologies in advance for any inconvenience.]
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