Verdi - Nabucco / Muti, Bruson, Dimitrova, Burchuladze, Becaria, Pierotti, La Scala
by Brian Large
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Bruno Beccaria, Ghena Dimitrova, Paata Burchuladze, Raquel Pierotti, Renato BrusonDirector: Brian Large
Writer: Temistocle Solera
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Classical, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 140 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-02-10
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Kultur Video
Movie Reviews of Verdi - Nabucco / Muti, Bruson, Dimitrova, Burchuladze, Becaria, Pierotti, La Scala
Movie Review: A great performance, lousy staging.
Summary: 3 Stars
If this recording were sound only on a CD, I wouldn't hesitate in giving it 5 stars or whatever is the maximum. This would be in spite of the fact that the libretto is hilariously fictional. It isn't even Biblical, which is another sort of fiction.
I strongly recommend you get the CD set if available, and avoid this visual dog of an opera. The cast is nothing short of being in glorious voice. Ricardo Muti's hand at the podium is firm, yet flexible, bringing out the strong sense of drama in this piece. The wonder of the piece is Abigaila, a role which has ruined many a voice and which some great sopranos have refused to sing. Ghena Dimitrova has the measure of this part and sings it with great bravura. The other major parts, while not quite so challenging, are performed fully up to Dimitrova's standard. Shut your eyes, or at least don't look at the screen more than necessary to get a sense of the subtitles, and you're in for a huge treat.
Well, now we have the opera itself. Plot-wise, it's a mess. Pre-20th Century opera often plays fast and loose with history, but Nabucco is in contention for being the worst piece in this category. It's about as historical as Disney's "Snow White". The title character is known in English as Nebuchadnezzar II or Nebchadrezzar - a distortion of his real name, Nabu-kudurri-usur. In the opera, he is called "King of Assyria". Yeah, sure. But in his time, Assyria had already been disposed of; he is actually king of Bab-Ilu (Babylon). In the opera he has 2 daughters (Abigaila and Faena), one adopted (presumably) and one by birth, one with a Hebrew name and the other with a name of unknown provenance. The plot is driven by the ambition of the former and the purity and sweetness of the latter. Neither of them is known to real history.
Nabucco and his subjects supposedly worship the god Baal as Head God (they actually worshipped Marduk). Baal was Head God of the people of Canaan, Phoenicia, and other places in that general area. The Tanakh ("Old Testament") runs a tabloid-style story about Nebuchadnezzar going mad and eating grass and all that. In the opera Nabucco goes sort of mad (mostly by having bad dreams). This is followed in Bible and opera by a ludicrous conversion of "Assyria" to the worship of Yhwh ("Jehovah"). The Book of Jonah contains a similar howler. There is a scene in which the great statue of "Baal" crumbles to the ground, but for some reason (see below) it's omitted - greatly weakening the dramatic impact of the production.
So much for the shortcomings of Verdi's librettist. We turn now to the physical production, which is where the real problems of this version of Nabucco reside. To put it briefly, this is one of the worst examples of the "stand still and sing" perversion of opera I've ever seen. Somehow opera has become the museum piece of the musical world, performed with the dead hand of reverence - and the hand on this performance is particularly dead. In scene after scene, in war and in civil dissention, the chorus stands stock still. At one point the chorus stands around in front of an elevated tableau that doesn't even twitch during the whole scene. The main characters don't fare much better. They stand just as still, but they do it in a spot light. This is why the idol of Baal doesn't crash and crumble to the stage floor: it would be embarrassing to get more movement out of a statue instead of the people.
Granted, there is some movement. It occurs when it's absolutely unavoidable - people coming onstage or going offstage. Nabucco does one aria lying on the ground - easier to hold still, you know. Such movement as does exist is usually fairly languid. On the whole, the vigor and movement of the music in Muti's hands is in telling contrast to the pallid, trance-like aspect of the people onstage. Verdi would have had a coronary.
Speaking of stage aspect, we should consider costumes and sets. Don't expect to see anything that even remotely resembles the Middle East of the 6th Century BCE - although some of the long tiered robes resemble costumes shown in Assyrian and Babylonian art. The color scheme is generally almost monochromatic for the most part uninteresting - and not at all representative of a barbaric era of strong coloring.
The sets are monumental, not at all resembling the architecture of the period but at least like it in spirit. The only thing that has a feel of Assyro-Babylonian times is a gigantic representation of the brilliant "Dying Lioness" frieze from (as I recall) Nineveh, the pinnacle of Assyrian art. Not that the King of Babylon would have any such thing in his palace.... On the whole, the sets are more surrealistic than strictly representational. In fact, they tend to overwhelm at the same time the static choruses underwhelm. This disparity of scale adds to the ridiculous note already sounded by all the goings-on - or, rather, lack of goings-on - in the staging.
So the performance gets 5 stars, the staging gets 1 star -- average, 3. I've already said it: to get the part of this opera that's really good, get the CD set.
More Verdi - Nabucco / Muti, Bruson, Dimitrova, Burchuladze, Becaria, Pierotti, La Scala reviews:
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1 2 3
Summary of Verdi - Nabucco / Muti, Bruson, Dimitrova, Burchuladze, Becaria, Pierotti, La Scala
Roberto de Simone's production of Verdi's epic opera recorded at the Teatro alla Scala. Starring Renato Bruson, Ghena Dimitrova, and Paata Burchuladze.Musicals & Performing Arts DVD Video
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