Nabucco (APO, 19/08/2012)
Sebastian Catana (Nabucco), Paoletta Marrocu (Abigaille), Helen Medlyn (Fenena), Alejandro Roy (Ismaele), Burak Bilgili (Zaccaria), Anna Leese (Anna), Ben Makisi (Abdallo), Grant Dickson (High Priest of Baal), Chapman Tripp Opera Chorus, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, Eckehard Stier
It's been a comparatively good couple of months for opera in Auckland. Firstly we had New Zealand Opera's impeccable Rigoletto, followed by last month's stunning Walkure with the NZSO (reviewed earlier). This time, it was Verdi's turn - the early Nabucco, a work I love for all of its over-the-top passions and frankly ridiculously difficult music for the singers. For this the APO gathered a spectacular international cast, mostly unfamiliar to me before but now high on my list of singers to hear again. The APO's yearly Opera in Concert has almost invariably delivered up stunning performances (for example, the late Elizabeth Connell's blistering Elektra from a couple of years ago) but this year's offering had a further perceivable leap in quality.
Star of the evening was soprano Paoletta Marrocu, who delivered a blistering performance as Abigaille. Right from her first entrance ("Prode guerrier" in startling chest register) she absolutely owned the stage, radiation malevolence and willfulness. The freakishly difficult music holds no terrors for her, from the aforementioned terrifying chest to trumpeting fortissimo high notes to gorgeously unearthly pianissimi. Most importantly, Marrocu commands an innate understanding of how a Verdian phrase should be shaped - the melody in "Anch'io dischiuso" was gorgeously moulded, making more sense of the crazy vocal line than anyone I've heard before. The actual voice is pretty edgy, sort of Scotto-ish but with much greater ease on high. She also made the ridiculous coloratura demands seem easy. She lived every word, fully involved with the text - such demented scorn in the duet with Nabucco as she denied his pleas. This was all contrasted with an extremely vivid account of the final scene, delivered in short sharp breaths, contrition to the fore. None of this was terribly subtle, but there's nothing subtle about Nabucco and I loved every second of Marrocu's performance.
Our Nabucco was Sebastian Catana, a last-minute substitute for Boris Statsenko and alone among the cast, he understandably had a score in hand. There were a couple of hesitant moments in recitative but apart from this he seemed totally confident with the assignment. The voice is a big juicy baritone, rolling out in long phrases with superb breath control. A little bit of tightness on top didn't affect the performance overly. Catana had some good ideas about character, thundering convincingly when he declares himself God and bringing real vulnerability to the duet with Abigaille. His last act aria was lovingly shaped. I've hear a bit of Statsenko on Youtube etc. and I can't believe that he would have topped Catana's performance, so all credit to the Auckland Philharmonia for engaging such a quality replacement.
After Abigaille, the best impression was made by the Zaccaria, Turkish bass Burak Bilgili. From the beginning he delivered the prophet's pronouncements in gorgeous oaken tones, something in the basic tone colour radiating authority. Zaccaria's solos demand a sure grasp of legato and line and Bilgili supplied exactly that, reminding me a little of the young Nicolai Ghiaurov. His repeated high Fs in the Finale of Act Three were thrilling and effortless. It's a sumptuous sound and one I'd like to hear more of, please.
Ismaele and Fenena are weird roles, set up at the beginning to be the romantic leads and then hardly appearing in the opera after that. In the former role, Alejandro Roy sang with golden tone but at an unremitting fortissimo, sometimes obliterating others on stage. A wonderful sound but he could tone it down just a tad. On the face of it, Helen Medlyn would seem to be miscast as the virtuous maiden Fenena (I last saw her as a terrifying Klytamnestra), but she sung with such expressiveness that I really didn't care that it's not the most suitable instrument for the part. Her last Act aria is a gorgeous piece of music and this was about the first time I've heard it sung as well as it deserves.
The chorus sang well, although they were probably on the small (in tone if not numbers) side for this music. More praise is due the orchestra who played wonderfully under the baton of Eckehard Stier. This is probably the best work I've heard him done - wonderfully taut conducting with great rhythmic control and accuracy in Verdi's repetitive 'oom-pah-pah' rhythms. The orchestra took everything in stride with appropriately gutsy attack. I also enjoyed the well-shaped flute and cello interplay in the introduction to Nabucco's aria. Lastly, I also have to mention Anna Leese, playing (appropriately) Anna, whose warm glowing tones illuminated every ensemble. Very excited to hear her Marenka in The Bartered Bride coming up with New Zealand Opera.
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