Nabucco

  In Charles Osborne’s biography of Giuseppe Verdi, he writes of the German composer Otto Nicolai’s diary entry which reads,

  “Verdi is the Italian opera composer of today. He has set the libretto which I rejected, and made his fortune with it. But his operas are absolutely dreadful, and utterly degrading to Italy.”

  This sentiment could be attributed to a whole host of reasons on the part of the German composer. Jealousy, resentment, xenophobia, or perhaps his own aesthetic preferences when it came to operatic composition, but to say that Verdi’s operas to this point were degrading to Italy is a ridiculous statement in itself. The most obvious rebuttal to Otto Nicolai’s opinion is voiced by the rousing success that Nabucco (known as ‘Nebuchadnezzar’ for the first two years since its premiere) generated within its initial eight performances. In addition to Gaetano Donizetti’s exclamation of,

 “Oh, that Nabucco. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!”, after the premiere, it was the people of Italy who identified with the oppressed Jews of the opera during the famous chorus, Va, pensiero, sull’ali dorate (Fly, thought, on golden wings,) and made Verdi the unofficial composer of the Risorgimento movement that would help catapult Italy in to the European revolutions of 1848. The Lyric Opera of Chicago performance of Nabucco did great justice to this seminal work that originally established Verdi as the torch bearer of Italian opera for the rest of the 19^th century.

Singing the role of Nabucco, the Babylonian king, was renowned Serbian baritone Zeljko Lucic. Mr. Lucic is known for his interpretation of the biggest operatic roles in the Italian dramatic baritone repertoire, especially that of Giuseppe Verdi and has sung at the largest opera houses in the world. Having never heard Mr. Lucic live, I was quite excited for this performance at the Lyric Opera. From his first singing moments on stage it was clear that Mr. Lucic was not in peak form. He seemed to be lacking in energy, not only in his singing, but his stage presence as well. Mr. Lucic slowly lumbered about and looked like a king without a sense of urgency and his posture a bit slumped over when he sang. His voice was missing vitality normally heard on live recordings of his past performances and his pitch suffered at times as a result.

  Making up for Mr. Lucic was the wonderful performance given by Russian soprano, Tatiana Serjan singing the role of the jealous daughter of Nabucco, Abigaille. Ms. Serjan made her Chicago debut singing the role of Lady Macbeth under Maestro Riccardo Muti with the Chicago Symphony orchestra, returning the next season for the Verdi requiem. She made her Lyric opera debut as Tosca during the 2014-15 season. Ms. Serjan has a full and round lyric soprano voice whose depth is nicely balanced by a steely edge that rips through the air with a quick vibrato. Ms. Serjan sings with flexibility that gives a beautiful shape to her connected vocal lines and can go from a piercing forte down to a floating piano throughout her evenly balanced voice. There were times when her voice lost a bit of its glimmer when sitting in the passaggio, but that was heavily outweighed by her energy, commitment, and emotional connection to the role.

  Singing the role of Fenena, Nabucco’s daughter who has fallen in love with Ismaele, is American mezzo-soprano and Ryan Center alumni, Elizabeth DeShong. Ms. DeShong has a round clear voice with a beautifully warm tone that moves with ease. Although a mezzo-soprano, the timbre of her voice was in many ways similar to that of Ms. Serjan and at times got lost in larger ensembles. Her voice blended nicely with that of Mr. Skorokhdov, who sang the part of Ismaele, Fenena’s Romeoesque love interest.

  In the part of Zaccaria, the high priest of the Jews was sung by Russian Bass, Dmitry Belosselskiy. Mr. Belosselskiy has a rich dark tone that can easily be heard over the large orchestra and seems to be inches away from the audience’s ears. His lower range sounded a bit weak throughout the performance and one had to strain his lowest notes even when the orchestra was playing piano. Mr. Belosselskiy has a strong upper range and his high notes have a distinctive cut and ring to them.

  Singing the role of Ismaele, nephew to the King of Jerusalem and love interest of Fenena, in his Lyric Opera debut was Russian tenor, Sergei Skorokhodov. Mr. Skorokhodov was one of the highlights of an impressive production. He sang with a nice legato line that was even throughout his entire range and an upper range that had a bright ring to it without sacrificing depth. His voice’s timbre is a perfect fit for Bel Canto opera as well as more lyrical tenor parts like Verdi’s Ismaele.

  The role of the Babylonian High priest was sung by American bass, Stefan Szkafarowsky. He seemed a little out of place next to the other soloists as his voice was a little thinner in color and depth.  His vibrato was, at times, a bit wide and his projection was not as strong as his colleagues.

  The conducting for this production was done by Milan-born Carlo Rizzi. Maestro Rizzi had a lot of energy on the podium and appeared to be in constant communication with the singers. This was evident, not only in how well the orchestra and the singers were in synch with each other, but in Mr. Rizzi’s dynamic sensitivity. The orchestra did not blatantly overwhelm the singers, which has been a consistent complaint of mine with regard to the conducting of Sir Andrew Davis over the past three seasons.

The Lyric Opera chorus was in superb form, singing with clarity and depth. One of the obvious highlights of any production of Nabucco is the chorus, VA pensiero (Fly, thought on golden wings) and the Chorus executed this piece with great skill. They sang long phrases in beautiful legato lines with dynamic sensitivity and thrilling portamenti.

  The set and costumes were rather straightforward and lacking extravagance or flair which was fine given the seriousness of the storyline. The Babylonians were all clad in rich crimson while the Jews were dressed in black and later on gray. The scrim that began each Act was covered in Hebrew writing which also covered parts of the Jewish temple. The sets were plain, but highlighted by blue lighting and gold pieces such as the Jewish ark that houses the Talmud and a trio of horses signifying Nabucco’s royalty upon his first entrance.

  The most disappointing aspect of this well sung performance was the direction and staging by Matthew Ozawa in his Lyric directing debut. The performers came across as stiff and lifeless at times given the lack of realistic blocking. They had little interaction with each other which often contradicted the emotion and or intent that was being communicated. Anger was farcical and love was cardboard. The singers were directed to move at awkward times or were staged too far from one another. I am a fan of stand and sing opera, especially in an opera such as Nabucco, but the direction in this production was bordering on ridiculous. I would have attended a puppet opera if I wanted wooden direction.

  I would still recommend this production of Nabucco due to the incredible singing by nearly the entire cast, especially the chorus, despite a few of the subpar aspects. Verdi performed as the composer intended is something that shouldn’t be missed.