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by Giuseppe Verdi, directed by Katherine M. Carter

Canadian Opera Company, Four Seasons Centre, Toronto

October 4-25, 2024

“Oh mia patria sì bella e perduta!

Oh membranza sì cara e fatal!” (Chorus of Hebrews, Act 3, Scene 2)

The opening of the Canadian Opera Company’s 2024/25 season was an historic event. For the first time in its 74-year-long history the company staged Verdi’s opera Nabucco (1842), an opera that is standard repertory in opera houses across the globe. At long last a significant gap in the company’s production history has been filled. It would be wonderful to say that the COC premiere of Nabucco was a success, but, strangely enough, for the first half of the evening, the performance looked under-rehearsed with noticeable technical gaffes. The stark, peculiar design and stodgy direction will win no awards, but what counts most is the singing. Nabucco is known as a choral opera and the COC Chorus under Chorus Master Sandra Horst was resplendent throughout.

Nabucco is the short Italian form of Nabucodonosor, known in English as Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar II (c. 642-562BC) was the great king of Babylon who during his reign made his empire the dominant power in the Middle East. He built the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, which was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and he is mentioned in the Bible in 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, but most of all in Daniel. This is because in 587BC when the action is set, Nabucco began his conquest of Jerusalem. He destroyed the First Temple, burned down the city and forcibly relocated about 7000 Judeans to Babylon, a disaster that profoundly affected the future development of Judaism.

Important as Nabucco is in history, the primary sources for Verdi’s librettist were an Italian ballet and a French play. These introduced the necessary but fictional love interests people once expected in opera. The opera opens in Jerusalem with the Chorus of Hebrews gathered in the Temple and fearful of the imminent arrival of Nabucco and his forces. Zaccaria, High Priest of the Jews, thinks they will not be harmed because they hold Nabucco’s younger daughter Fenena captive. Soon Nabucco’s elder daughter Abigaille enters with other Babylonian soldiers in disguise. When she spies Fenena in the arms of Ismaele, nephew of the King of Jerusalem, we learn that both Fenena and Abigaille love Ismaele but Ismaele loves only Fenena. Nabuccoenters, destroys the Temple and takes the Hebrews captive.

The next three of the opera’s four acts take place in Babylon. Nabucco, while he is away at war, appoints Fenena, his favourite daughter as regent. Abigaille, however, seizes power. When Nabucco unexpectedly returns, he is stricken with madness and declares himself not only the Babylonians’ king but also their god. At this, he is struck down with a thunderbolt and imprisoned and Abigaille declares herself ruler. She forces Nabucco to sign a death warrant for the Jews, which Nabucco hesitates to do since Fenena has converted to Judaism. When Nabucco awakens the next day, he prays to the god of the Hebrews and his strength and reason are restored. He now hopes to regain the throne and stop the executions to save Fenena.

The difficulty in presenting an opera like this that so mixes historical and fictional elements is how to have the work acknowledge its origins while also universalizing the conflict between Judea and Babylon. It’s too bad that the design for this Nabucco is more bizarre than enlightening.

The COC is presenting the production by the Lyric Opera of Chicago that premiered in 2016. Michael Yeargan’s abstract set is all huge uprights and beams making it suitable for interiors or exteriors, arches and colonnades. What’s strange is that the set is painted blue for both the scenes in Jerusalem and in Babylon. It’s true that the Ishtar Gate now at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin is blue, but why make the First temple in Jerusalem blue as well? In Act 4, the libretto calls for the collapse of the Babylonians’ statue of Baal. This ought to be spectacular but here the statue was only a candlestick-shaped object placed on the altar, not the not the huge, malevolent bulk it should be.

The Jews of Act 1 are clad in traditional black robes and headwear with prayer shawls that could stand for any Orthodox Jewish garb from the 18th century to the present. When in captivity, costume designer Jane greenwood has put them into typical stage “rags”, i.e., weathered, greyish tops with trousers for the men and skirts for the women, that have nothing to do with what we saw in Act 1. The Babylonians, however, Greenwood has clad entirely in shades of red. The Babylonian soldiers wear red ninja suits and helmets with the outlines of medieval Japanese headgear but with clear plastic visors making them look like Imperial Army troopers from Star Wars. The palette for the production, limited to only red and blue primaries plus black and white, is loud and visually tiring. These strong contrasts are not helped by the unsubtle lighting by Mikael Kangas (reproducing that of Duane Schuler) which is either too dim or too bright.

Katherine M. Carter’s direction is very old school, its main concern being traffic control and arranging the large cast decoratively about the stage with reassortments for each new number. Singers sing more often directly to the audience rather than each other, and Carter even encourage the semaphore style of acting that we haven’t seen in operas in Toronto since the days at the Hummingbird Centre. I lost count of how many times she had Abigaille unsheathe her sword to make a point, a habit she also gave Nabucco.

Worse than this general stodge was the appearance that the opening night performance was under-rehearsed. Not only were lighting cues routinely late but spotlights from the front and the side would pop on or go off in no particular relation to the action. The worst example was when conductor Paolo Carignani began the entr’acte to Act 2 too early and had to stop for the stagehands to finish the scene change before repeating it again. Such a messy performance was really a pity for the belated premiere of such an opera and for the opening of the season.

Luckily, Nabucco is primarily a choral opera and the COC Chorus was magnificent. Their number increased to 56, the chorus sang with the utmost sensitivity and precision. Its account of “Va, pensiero” was predictably impassioned and beautiful shaped, but what stood out even more was the gorgeous a cappella hymn “Immenso Jehovah” of Act 4.

Two of the principals had to overcome negative first impressions. As Nabucco, Scottish baritone Roland Wood indulged in the audience-unfriendly practice of saving his voice. Singing below the volume of the other principals meant that Nabucco’s first entrance which should knock us over with its power was distinctly underwhelming. Nabucco has a mad scene but Wood did nothing in terms of acting or singing to signal it. Only in Acts 3 and 4 after the interval, did Wood begin singing with full, rounded golden tone. Only then could we see why he is a renowned baritone. His finest moments were Nabucco’s decision to pray to Jehovah in “Dio di Giuda” which embodied Nabucco’s yearning for an end to suffering.

As Abigaille, American Mary Elizabeth Williams wields a strong spinto soprano, but she has to have it under control to be effective. It was not under control on her first blustery entrance that included some blurry coloratura runs. However, she mastered it by then end of Act 1 and gave a powerfully dramatic account of the extremely difficult role for the remainder of the opera. While able to float high notes over the sound of a combined orchestra and chorus, it was her moving, gentle account of “Anch’io dischiuso un giorno” in which Abigaille recalls her past happiness, that received the greatest applause.

Two former members of the COC Ensemble Studio impress from the very start with their acting and singing. These are Canadians Rihab Chaieb as Fenena and Matthew Cairns as Ismaele. Chaieb has a lush amber mezzo-soprano, ideal for Carmen, but used here to portray the sincerity of a woman faithful to her beloved. Cairns and Chaieb’s well blended voice make their duet “Fenena!! … O mia diletta” an island of beauty in an otherwise stormy Act 1.

As Zaccaria, Korean bass Simon Lim brought the requisite gravitas to his role as the High Priest of the Jews. His powerful first aria “D’Egitto là su i lidi” shows off his dark, agile voice, even if it sometime lacks the cavernous quality that would make it even more effective. Verdi may use the character of Anna, Zaccaria’s sister to float high notes over the multitudes in the absence of Abigaille, but former COC Ensemble Studio member Charlotte Siegel attacks and holds these notes with aplomb. And I often found myself looking over the crowd onstage to find that the lovely high notes I was hearing were coming from her.

Under conductor Paolo Carignani the COC Orchestra produces an immensely satisfying sound, with the brass proving to be in top form. Carignani’s tempi, however, are idiosyncratic, often taking slow passages far too slowly. The result is that the opera overall lacked tension and a strong forward momentum. One hopes that over the course of the opera’s run that the company solves the cueing missteps of opening night and the presentation of the work becomes more cohesive. In any case, it is good that the COC has finally staged Nabucco, making one hope it will now become part of the COC’s regular offerings.

Christopher Hoile

Photo: Roland Wood as Nabucco (arm raised) with Babylonian troops; chorus of Hebrew slaves; Mary Elizabeth Williams as Abigaille, Roland Wood as Nabucco, Simon Lim as Zaccaria, Rihab Chaieb as Fenena and Matthew Cairns as Ismaele; Elizabeth Williams as Abigaille (centre), Rihab Chaieb as Fenena and Matthew Cairns as Ismaele. © 2024 Michael Cooper.

For tickets visit: www.coc.ca.