It is amazing how the ultra-conservative Viennese are (apparently?) so accepting of Krämer’s staging which confronts them with their own past, and as well as being so minimalistic – despite two set designers, Manfred Voss and Petra Buchholz – for long stretches this Nabucco is little more than a semi-staged concert performance.ĭuring Verdi’s amazingly jaunty overture – given the opera’s themes – on an oriental rug at the front of the stage some children are playing as a young ballerina pirouettes. I was intrigued to see that this live performance in an empty opera house was only the 79th Nabucco at Vienna State Opera and all these have been in Günter Krämer’s production which premiered on though his updating doesn’t look almost twenty years old. ‘Va, pensiero’ soon became something of an anthem for the Italians who themselves were a divided nation under foreign rule and seeking unification and independence. These are now the opening words (‘Go, thought, on golden wings’) of the famous chorus – which is sung by the Hebrews in captivity – which would seal the success in 1842 of what became Verdi’s third opera, Nabucco. In falling, it had opened of itself without my realising it, my eyes clung to the open page and to one special line: “Va, pensiero, sull’ ali dorate”’. Verdi describes how he took it home and threw ‘it on the table with an almost violent gesture. However, the impresario Bartolomeo Merelli gave Verdi a copy of Temistocle Solera’s libretto about the historical Nebuchadnezzar II which had been rejected by the composer Otto Nicolai.
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Verdi suffered professional and personal setbacks in the winter of 1840-41: there was the failure at Milan’s La Scala of Un giorno di regno, which was withdrawn after just one performance, and to increase his despair there were the deaths of his two children and his young wife resulting in Verdi vowing never to compose again. ‘If I rest, I rust’ is emblazoned at the top of Domingo’s website that still shows he has several high-profile singing and conducting engagements in coming months. As a result, Domingo was best at showing Nabucco’s dishevelled enfeeblement rather than his supreme power. (I do remember another wonderful tenor, the late Alberto Remedios, who knew both Domingo and the much-missed Luciano Pavarotti, telling me they were ‘the same age’ and the two no longer with us would be 85 now.) Domingo’s obvious physical fragility undermined his performance as the ruthless Babylonian king Nabucco (Nebuchadnezzar II) who oppressed the Hebrew people. However there are a number of high-profile octogenarians across many fields of the arts who look less aged than Domingo now does. Recent years have not treated him kindly, what with the accusations of abuse of power he is still embroiled in and much ill-health including being hospitalised last March with a bout of coronavirus. This one-liner probably originated before Grant but who now cares? I have pondered this over several years about Plácido Domingo and watching him at officially 80 he has definitely not aged well. Not for the first time I write how a famous Hollywood star apparently once received a telegram: ‘How old Cary Grant?’, to which he replied ‘Old Cary Grant fine. Domingo first sang there on in the title role of Verdi’s Don Carlo. Meanwhile, despite apparent restrictions they have managed to broadcast live Verdi’s Nabucco to mark Plácido Domingo’s 80th birthday (on 21 January) and what was previously announced as his farewell to Vienna State Opera.
Roščić is looking forward – as most opera managements throughout the world are – to resuming performances for audiences in the opera house as soon as they are allowed to. The High Priest of Baal – Dan Paul Dumitrescuīogdan Roščić (director of Vienna State Opera) explains the current situation in Vienna under the current lockdown as follows: ‘The fact that the Vienna State Opera can rehearse new productions up to the premiere during the lockdown in order to then incorporate them into the repertoire is crucial for our future seasons. The fact that we can offer these premieres and also important revivals to the public via television and stream is at least as important in times of months of lockdown. We reach such a huge audience, and the reactions of the opera-loving audience are enthusiastic. Nevertheless, none of this is a sustainable model, neither economically nor artistically’.
Set design – Manfred Voss, Petra Buchholz (JPr) Vienna State Opera’s Nabucco final scene Livestreamed (directed by Jakob Pitzer) from Vienna State Opera. Austria Verdi, Nabucco: Chorus and Orchestra of Vienna State Opera / Marco Armiliato (conductor).
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