Verdi: Nabucco
April 2006 Reviewed by: Wes Marshall Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

Opera directors are always tempted to turn Nabucco into a Holocaust metaphor. The story is about the mistreatment of the Jews by Nabucco, the King of Babylon, so there is some justification. But many directors pile the symbolism on so thick that I keep expecting to see Nabucco come out wearing a uniform and a little moustache. Still, I so wish for costumes and sets that remind us why the art is called Grand Opera. Instead, on this TDK DVD, we have a production that is relentlessly melancholic and morbid. With hundreds of aspiring opera composers who would gladly create a true Holocaust opera, could we please let Verdi and his little post-bel canto opera be accurately staged?

Now that that’s off my chest, what we have here musically is one of the world’s finest choruses (and Nabucco is rich with glorious choral writing) in aid of today’s reigning Nabucco, Leo Nucci. He was 59 when this was recorded, and though the role is that of an older man, it requires huge reserves of vocal power as well as great subtlety, attributes that usually evaporate when a singer reaches 50 or so. Nucci still does a fine job; he's restrained or vigorous whenever called upon. Watch his conversion scene, "Dio di Guida" (chapter 38). The director mistakenly photographs Nucci too close -- I’m not sure we really want to see how he forms all those beautiful sounds -- but the emotion is unmistakable and the singer finally has to stop the applause with a neat little stage trick so the production can go on.

The rest is not so good. Miroslav Dvorský plays Ismaele, the love interest for Nabucco’s two daughters. When he chooses one, the other exacts revenge by convincing her father to burn down the temple. The problem is Dvorský’s thin, weak tenor voice, compounded by his pasty and weak appearance, which makes one wonder why the sisters care so much. Of the two sisters it is Abigaille, played by Maria Guleghina, who wins Ismaele. Guleghina has a voice powerful enough to peel paint at 200 paces and, though she is the most-sought-after Abigaille treading today’s boards, she so overpowers in her duets that it makes you wonder if she’s incapable of turning the volume down. This reminds me to someday ask the opera deities why Eva Marton gets to play Turandot over and over. The two divas offer similar stumbling blocks.

Seeing the ending is almost worth the price of the DVD (around $30). As the cast take their bows to a tepidly responding audience, a shill, obviously hired by Guleghina’s agent, ambles down the aisle and carelessly tosses a bouquet of flowers to the stage. He’s so bored with his task, he doesn’t even get the posies to the stage; they land on one of the contrabasses. As the camera pans around the audience, everyone remains resolutely in their seats except for a single soul who is giving a standing "O." The crowd has it right: worth polite applause, but not worth getting out of your seat.

The video quality is not up to the normal standards of European TV, though the sound is very good. As usual with TDK, there are no extras.

Chalk this one up as a good opportunity to see Nucci still in his prime as a singer and in his best years as an opera actor.

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