Patriotism Goes Biblical at the Met

Verdi’s Nabucco

Metropolitan Opera

December 16, 2016

Grand opera at the Met.
Photo credit: MetOpera

The revival of Elijah Moshinsky’s production of Verdi’s Nabucco brought us pleasurably back to grand, grand opera at the Met. For works like this one, where the historical context plays such a central role in the plot, sticking to traditional sets (especially those as spectacular as the Met’s here) is a necessary choice. I’m all for modernizing and streamlining productions, but for certain operas, dazzling historical pomp is just what it takes. Once we saw a minimalist Aida with an alien-futuristic take by Fura dels Baus and it was beyond grotesque. But back to Nabucco: not only did this production that debuted in 2001 prove itself a timeless classic with stunning temples and gorgeous costumes but we were also lucky to assist a remarkable star-studded cast bring the whole thing to life with none other than the inimitable James Levine at the helm.

Abigail moves in for the kill.
Photo credit: MetOpera

Mezzo Jamie Barton played Fenena, Nabucco’s daughter. I always jump at the opportunity to her her sing especially since I was completely blown away by her Adalgisa in Norma last year in Los Angeles. But after hearing Barton in Nabucco it became clear to me that Bellini’s writing for Adalgisa just suits her voice in a whole other way. Here it was like listening to another artist, a perfectly fine singer, just not as transfixing. The same goes for tenor Russell Thomas as Ismaele, nephew of the King of Jerusalem. We were bowled over by him in that same L.A. Norma. Here he was good, just not as extraordinary as when we first got to know him. True that both Fenena and Ismaele are not as meaty when compared to other roles in Nabucco.

Soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska as Abigaille, Nabucco’s eldest daughter who discovers she’s of slave descent, was a force of nature to be reckoned with. Her sound is incredibly powerful though her Italian was often a bit muddled. From the beginning, however, she came across musically and theatrically as a woman on a mission, a power hungry animal in pursuit, a rebel with a cause.

Bass Sava Vemić as the high priest of Baal, an evil character pushing Abigaille to power, was making his Met debut. We first encountered this young singer in a Roberto Devereux where he played the most minor role but was the best and most powerful singer on stage after Mariella Devia. It was great to see him again. He sounded good but not quite as forceful as we remember him that late winter day. His voice came across a bit too young for the role, perhaps he still needs to figure out the Met’s acoustic. On the other hand, baritone Dmitry Belosselskiy as Zaccaria, high priest of the Hebrews, was a discovery, which is a testament to just how solid this cast was overall.

Tenor turned baritone steals the show.
Photo credit: Marty Sohl

Which brings us to the highlight of the night. The legendary Placido Domingo was strikingly expressive as Nabucco. I’m not sure that what we heard was necessarily a baritone, but he sounded full and raw, and played the emotional core of the opera like an open wound. Still going strong at his age, Domingo exceeded my expectations on every level. While some say that Placido should just stop pretending to be a baritone, after hearing him here, I cannot but disagree with them since, at least here, in a way, his lyrical expressivity as a life-long tenor translated very well into the baritonal role. No other singer on stage conveyed character as effectively as Domingo. He portrayed the journey of the hubristic king who falls into madness only to subsequently convert and become an enlightened ruler with a heart-wrenching humanity that found me tears more than once over the course of the evening.

Father-daughter dynamics turned on its head.
Photo credit: Marty Sohl

At the center of Nabucco is a father-daughter drama, around which revolves a series of satellite dilemmas that help to motivate and shape things the larger story of the captive Hebrew population and their desire for freedom. This is one of those rare operas in which the role of the villain is played not by an alpha male of one kind or another, but rather by a jealous, vindictive, power hungry woman. Who said that the history of opera was only populated by stories of men doing awful things to women?

And it all comes to a head in Act III. The individual threads come colliding together when Nabucco, the now disenfranchised father descends into his deepest darkest cave. Having lost his throne and his position as the patriarch of his people, he makes an incredibly moving reflective prayer-like plea. Having hit rock bottom, he touches a kind of madness that I can only liken to that of Shakespeare’s King Lear who suffers a similar fate at the hands of two of his daughters. Then of course, all of this is followed by Verdi’s big show-stopping patriotic choral interlude Va’ pensiero. Beautifully executed, it is staged in a golden halo of transcendent light that is as uplifting and gilded as the melody the terrific Met chorus gently sings. It is truly gorgeous stuff and perhaps the most stunning ode to nationalistic longing in the history of opera.

Biblical patriotism comes suffused in a warm halo of light.
Photo credit: MetOpera

In just the past few months we have encountered several of the most important and moving patriotic bits in the nineteenth-century Italian canon. Last October two of Rossini’s political hymns graced the stage in the same week in both L’italiana in Algeri (Isabella’s aria Pensa alla patria) and Guillaume Tell (the final chorus À nos accents religieux). In Macbeth, which LoftOpera so brilliantly brought to us in December, we got to hear Verdi’s breathtaking moment of collectively displaced reverie in Patria oppressa.

It has been a season rife with Risorgimento undertones, as all the great classics in the nationalist songbook were here. With the election cycle rattling away through it all in the background like an obnoxious New York radiator in the dead of winter, it has somehow felt fitting. If only today we were so lucky as to be blessed with a populism that sounded so melodious.

– Lui & Lei

 

The great king crumbles, moves us to tears.
Photo credit: MetOpera

Hail to the Queen

Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux

June 5, 2014 - Carnegie Hall

The Opera Orchestra of New York

Lui: It was Mariella Devia’s night at Carnegie Hall, where the Opera Orchestra of New York breathed new life into an otherwise rarely heard gem of Gaetano Donizetti’s oeuvre. Roberto Devereux is the third installment of the composer’s trilogy, known as the “The Three Donizetti Queens” – the first two of which, namely, Anna Bolena and Maria Stuarda, have recently been dusted off by the Metropolitan Opera. This recital performance of the great opera set the sixty-six year old bel canto queen, Mariella Devia, as her majesty Elizabeth I, against a supporting cast over whom she towered regally.

Two Queens
Image credit: Michele Balistreri

Lei: This format is part of Opera Orchestra of New York's stated mission of coupling international seasoned artists with promising singers, which is a noble purpose, though the unevenness of experience among the cast was often painfully evident. The disparity between the vocal firepower of Devia and the greener voices of the rest of the singers, however, had the effect of emphasizing the Queen’s character traits even more than what the score calls for, in a triumph of sovereign passion and wrath.  

Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex
after Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger
oil on canvas, probably 17th century (circa 1596)

Lui: Even as a pure concert presentation, the expressiveness and vivid nature of the score and the tight plot structure with its lively pace loaded with extreme emotions still managed to take us places. Like a tightly wound drum, a clenched fist, it whisked us along through a series of court intrigues, overlapping love triangles, treason and death sentences. Roberto even came across as more of a noble character than expected from the mere plot summary. He and his love interest Sara were actually in love before he went off to war and it was only after he came back that he found out that Sara and the Duke of Nottingham had been betrothed and married while he was away with the blessing of the Queen. His sense of duty and honor is expressed in his desire to die in a duel against his rival to defend Sara’s honor. He has nothing else to live for. Nor does the Queen for that matter. Her love affair with Roberto is really what keeps the aging Elizabeth alive and, when her love is betrayed, she loses all interest in ruling.

The Darnley Portrait of Elizabeth I
Oil on canvas, circa 1575

Lei: Some claim that the role of Queen Elizabeth in Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux is the very peak of the soprano assoluta genre, where extraordinary female characters are portrayed through voices of “infinite variety with both heroic weight and flexibility.”* The complexity of Elizabeth’s character stems from the contrast between her demeanor and power as public figure (she can unleash armies and sign death sentences) and her private introspection as a woman in love (she sighs for her younger lover and worries about his fidelity). The opera may begin with the Queen sweetly raving about the joys of love in L’amor suo mi fe beata but her emotional temperature quickly rises as her suspicions about Roberto’s betrayal are confirmed in Un lampo un lampo orribile, in an upward spiral of royal fury culminating with Act II’s terzetto of Elizabeth, Roberto and Nottingham where she pours on her ex-lover a laundry list of insults (Un perfido, un vile, un mentitore (…) alma infida, ingrato core) while she signs his death sentence for high treason (and a most private betrayal). Then again, she changes her mind and very humanly hopes that Roberto will go back to her, if anything to save his own life. As her desperation deepens, Elizabeth does not even care about being loved back but only wants Roberto to live, even by the side of her rival (Vivi, ingrato, a lei d’accanto). When the Queen realizes that it’s too late and her lover got executed, she blames Sara and Nottingham and declares her loss of interest in life and power, calling for her successor James to take the throne (Non regno… non vivo… Escite… Lo voglio… Dell’anglica terra sia Giacomo il re).

Her Majesty La Devia
Photo credit: Tina Fineberg / The New York Times

Lui: Into the shoes of this waning Queen steps the great Mariella Devia, who, by contrast continues to perform at the height of her power as a singer. Wow! The purity of her sound hooks you at about the level of your upper chest, just below your throat and sucks you into the emotions she embodies with such force. She played the sweet spot of the stage at Carnegie like an old pro and filled the space with heft and volume. Hers is a sweet yet chesty soprano. Her agility as she races up and down the bel canto virtuosic scales is remarkable, never muddling a single note, but belting them out with crisp enunciation, clarity and purity. She has a way of really pulling you in. It was magical. One of those rare operatic experiences. A true diva and profoundly talented musician.

Lei: La Devia made me weep copiously at least twice during the evening. The emotional charge of her raging but also humanly desperate arias overwhelmed me when I least expected it. Devia’s impeccable vocal pyrotechnics went beyond virtuosism and really conveyed the deep dramatic tensions of her character, in a sensational display of vocal and dramatic energy. Also, the stellar soprano had a way of embodying the Queen with her whole body, using her posture and hands to interpret the music – yet another element that made her stand out, as the other singers mostly stood rigidly in front of their scores.

The cast and the Maestro
Photo credit: Warner Classics

Lui: Bass Sava Vemic, as Sir Walter Raleigh, had a very minor role, but was alarmingly powerful, especially for someone so young. He has a lot of promise with the punch he packs. In terms of the sheer girth and weight of his deep bass he dwarfed even the seasoned Devia. Truly surprising and very exciting.

The mezzo-soprano, Géraldine Chauvet was a sweet and charming Sara, the Duchess of Nottingham and Roberto Devereux’s primary love interest. Though she lacked the purity and cutting power of the lead veteran, her singing was technically very satisfying and solid throughout. And she had a great stage presence. Her duets with Roberto were moving in a young love kind of way in the context of this fresh young cast, that is, when the orchestra didn’t drown them out. Their rubato moments were especially vivid.

The unrequited love duet
Photo credit: Stephanie Berger / Opera News

After the Queen, the Duke of Nottingham has perhaps the most dynamic role, with his jealous switch from loyal friend to vindictive husband (Sangue volli e sangue ottenni) causing the death of Roberto. Baritone David Pershall as Nottingham had good expressiveness but too often came off as tentative. He seemed like a solid singer though not really ready for roles of this type yet.  I eventually warmed up to tenor, Stephen Costello, whose Roberto Devereux, Earl of Essex, was perhaps weakened at first by his apparent lack of confidence in the way he carried himself on stage. He only seemed to find his stride toward the middle of Act III when it came time for his two big arias and he found himself for the first time holding down the front of the stage on his own. Not only had his voice warmed up by then, but he seemed looser and more comfortable in his skin. Especially poignant was the second of his two big Act III double “prison arias,” Come uno spirto angelico.

Lei: Indeed Costello sadly confirmed my tenor famine theory. He does have good Italian diction and strength in his voice, but he generally lacks warmth and depth. His tone was sweet at times but really never had that melting effect that one expects from an outstanding tenor. Having the chance to sing with someone of the caliber of Devia should be a propeller to excel, but here it just seemed to have emasculating effects. Maybe if he wore a real shirt under his tux (instead of an absurd black t-shirt) he would have felt and looked like he belonged more on the stage.

Lui: Donizetti is so good. It was such a pleasure to be able to savor this under-appreciated opera with such mature orchestration and powerful singing. This composer’s overall breadth and range is hard to fathom. From the same musical mind come lighthearted romantic romps like La fille du regiment and L’Elisir d’amore, as well as big dramatic tragedies like Lucia di Lammermoor and the “Three Queens” trilogy. Musically subtle, distinctively melodic and always beautiful.

Maestro Eve Queler
Photo credit: Eve Queler's website

Lei: A female conductor is too rare a sight. In fact Eve Queler was actually the first “maestro” lady I’ve seen conducting an opera. The eighty-three year old led the Opera Orchestra of New York with impressive forceful grace, really doing justice to Donizetti’s score. Ms. Queler should be saluted not only for her conducting skills but also (and perhaps most importantly) for her 40-year long work as founder as well as heart and soul of OONY, which has brought to the New York City public long-neglected operas such as Wagner’s Rienzi, Verdi’s I Lombardi, Bizet’s Les pêcheurs de perles and, thankfully, the wonderfully fiery Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux.

– Lei & Lui

Curtain call 

Photo credit: Allegri con Fuoco

* Geoffrey S. Riggs, The Assoluta Voice in Opera, 1797-1847, p.7.