Live and in person at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, Toronto, Ont. Production of Lyric Opera of Chicago, Canadian Opera Company premiere. Plays, Oct. 17, 19, 23, 25.
By Giuseppe Verdi
Libretto by Temistocle Solera
Based on the ballet Nabucodonoso by Antonio Cortese
And the play Nabuchodonosor by Auguste Anicet-Bourgeois and Francis Cornu
Conductor, Paolo Carignani
Director, Katherine M. Carter
Set by Michael Yeargan
Costumes by Jane Greenwood
Lighting by Mikael Kangas
Original lighting by Duane Schuler
Cast: Matthew Cairns
Rihab Chaleb
Wesley Harrison
Simon Lim
Charlotte Siegel
Duncan Stenhouse
Mary Elizabeth Williams
Roland Wood
And a huge COC orchestra and chorus.
Note: As opera is not my forte, I won’t comment on the singing or the orchestra. I will look at Nabucco from a theatrical point of view since that is where my knowledge is.
Giuseppe Verdi wrote his opera in 1841 and it had its first performance in 1842 in Milan, where it was wildly successful.
It’s set in the ancient time of Nebuchadnezzar (in English) (or Nobuchodonosor in Italian) who was the Assyrian King of Babylon. For the purposes of the opera I’ll refer to him as he is in the program, as Nabucco (Roland Wood).
At the beginning of the opera Nabucco was in Jerusalem set to overcome the Jews who were gathering inside the Temple of Solomon. The Jewish prophet Zaccaria (Simon Lim) was preparing to battle Nabucco’s army. He had also captured Nabucco’s beloved daughter Fenena (Rihab Chaleb). Zaccaria entrusts Fenena to Ismaele (Matthew Cairns) while he goes into battle, not realizing that Fenena and Ismaele have met and have fallen in love. Nabucco is triumphant in overpowering Zaccaria and his troops and enslaving the Jews. Another subplot involves Abigaille (Mary Elizabeth Williams), Nabucco’s adopted daughter who is jealous of Fenena and vengeful in trying to get her father’s love. She is a fierce soldier.
While there are certainly many relationships going on in the opera, this is mainly an opera of the chorus, first the chorus of the Jews and also of the Assyrians. There are 56 in this chorus in total. Costume designer Jane Greenwood dresses the Jews in black robes with the men in prayer shawls and black hats initially. The Assyrians are in robes of red. Very impressive all round.
Michael Yeargan’s set of pillars and wide staircases in the beginning of the opera suggests the large size of the Temple of Solomon. When the action transfers to Nabucco’s throne room in his palace in Act II my eyebrows knitted. The throne is at the top of a lot of stairs but you are not looking at it head on, you are looking at it from the side. First Abigaille ascended the stairs to the throne—she was taking over, she thought, and then Nabucco climbed up those stairs. Somebody wants the singers to get a workout. The whole set piece takes up half the stage it seems as we look at this throne and stairs structure. It looks like whoever is sitting on the throne is looking into the wings instead of out to the audience. I thought that odd.
Director Katherine M. Carter maneuvers the choruses with confidence and she establishes the relationships of the characters. But when Fenena is brought on as a prisoner she and her ‘captor’ are placed on a top step but behind the chorus so we can’t actually see her clearly, just her head and a bit of the shoulders and occasionally she tries to pull away. It seems rather clumsy. Considering how important her capture is she should be on view clearly in that first scene. But the other staging/direction is efficient, clear and effective.
I have heard from those who know their opera that Giuseppe Verdi was using a metaphor of the Jews to represent the Italians in Italy in 1842. The Italians felt under the oppressive yoke of various factions who ruled them: The Austrians in the North, the Pope around Rome and the Spanish in the south. It all resulted in the revolution of 1848. But I could not find any concrete evidence of this in the program or in other research—that using the Jews of ancient times represented the Italians in the 1840s. I was told that there were censors at work and perhaps Verdi could have been arrested so he was being careful.
Or it could be that those people who first saw the opera in 1842 heard a story that focused on the Jews being oppressed in Babylonian times, and applied it to their own experience of Italy in the 1840s. Today when we see/hear the opera we see the oppression of the Jews (and others) and apply it to todays angry, fractious, violent times. History keeps repeating itself, alas.
Fascinating opera.
The Canadian Opera Company presents the Lyric Opera of Chicago production:
Plays Oct. 17, 19, 23, 25, 2024.
Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes (1 intermission)