{"id":66750,"date":"2013-06-01T19:59:26","date_gmt":"2013-06-01T17:59:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gbopera.it\/?p=66750"},"modified":"2016-12-21T00:20:08","modified_gmt":"2016-12-20T23:20:08","slug":"nabucco-bewitches-beijing-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/nabucco-bewitches-beijing-2\/","title":{"rendered":"“Nabucco” Bewitches Beijing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Beijing, NCPA, Opera Season\u00a0 2013<\/em>
\n<\/em>\u201cNABUCCO\u201d<\/strong>
\n<\/strong>Opera in four acts, libretto by Temistocle Solera
\nComposer\u00a0Giuseppe Verdi<\/strong>
\nNabucco\u00a0<\/em>PLACIDO DOMINGO\/VLADIMIR STOYANOV
\nAbigaille\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>SUN XIUWEI\/ANNA PIROZZI
\nZaccaria\u00a0<\/em>LIANG LI\/KRISTINN SIGMUNDSSON
\nIsmaele\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>JIN ZHENGJIAN\/LUCIANO GANCI
\nFenena<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>YANG GUANG\/HAO JUNHUA
\nHigh Priest of Baal\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>ZHAO MING
\nAbdallo\u00a0<\/em>LIU NAIQUI
\nAnna\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0ZHANG JING
\nOrchestra and Chorus of the NCPA
\nConductor\u00a0Eugene Kohn<\/strong>
\n<\/strong>Chorus master\u00a0Roberto Gianola<\/strong>
\n<\/strong>Director\u00a0Gilbert Deflo<\/strong>
\n<\/strong>Set design\u00a0Ezio Frigerio
\n<\/strong>Costumes\u00a0Franca<\/strong>\u00a0Squarciapino<\/strong>
\n<\/strong>Lighting Design\u00a0Vinicio Cheli\u00a0<\/strong>
\nProjection Design\u00a0\u00a0Sergio Metelli\u00a0<\/strong>
\nChoreographer and Physique Instructor\u00a0Liu Lilly
\n<\/strong>Beijing<\/em>, 22-23\u00a0 May 2013\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Verdi bicentenary celebrations are taking place in opera houses around the world this year, and Beijing is no exception.<\/strong>\u00a0The high-point of the celebrations is the new production of Nabucco which premiered on May 22nd<\/sup>, ironically on Wagner\u2019s birth-date, and Beijing managed to capture Domingo, opera\u2019s most charismatic and beloved star, in the title role. This is his third appearance in a Nabucco production in the last five weeks, having recently sung it with great success at both the \u00a0ROH Covent Garden and the opening of the Mariinsky 2 at Saint Petersburg, with\u00a0 further performances planned this summer at the Arena Festival in Verona. With consumate skill and artistry, Domingo has managed to pass from the tenor role of Ismaele 30 years ago, to the baritone role of\u00a0 Nabucco today. \u00a0After such a lustrous\u00a0 career as a tenor,\u00a0Domingo, with the artistic intelligence that distinguishes him, is choosing roles not only more suitable to his vocality, but roles he can slip into comfortably<\/strong>, consonant with his age and experience, that also highlight his strengths. \u00a0The quality of his voice is still beautiful and shows no signs of wear. He moves easily in the entire baritone range, and the dark, burnished quality of his voice together with his expressivity and artfulness manage to compensate the need for a stronger and grittier baritone in this role. Intelligently, Domingo doesn\u2019t try to alter the nature of his voice, but uses all his own specific qualities to their best advantage. At no time in the performance did he force his voice or enlarge it or try to make it sound fiercer.\u00a0\u00a0He relied on diction, musical phrasing, vocal expressivity and of course, his exceptional stage-presence. The role of Nabucco is often overshadowed by the more spectacular vocal part of Abigaille. However, \u00a0in this performance a balance was struck through Domingo\u2019s strong characterization of a king, who from the heights of power and presumption descends to the depths of despair, only to be reborn wiser and more humane.
\nBeautiful and imposing sets by\u00a0Ezio Frigerio<\/strong>, sumptuous and elegant costumes by\u00a0Franca Squarciapino<\/strong>, evocative lighting by\u00a0Vinicio Cheli<\/strong>\u00a0and breath-taking projection design by Sergio Metelli were a visual feast. The crumbling of the Temple and the conflagration scene were stunning. The Old Testament quotes that Verdi used as headings for his acts, were projected during the scene changes aiding continuity and collocating\u00a0 the relevant episode.\u00a0There was effective deployment of the masses by the director\u00a0Gilbert Defl\u00f2<\/strong>\u00a0in the double-tiered palace scenes and a striking tableau with the Hebrew slaves at the beginning of the chorus Va\u2019 Pensiero. Nabucco\u2019s entrance was a bit awkward, shuffling in, and enclosed as he was by shields. It didn\u2019t reflect the triumphant, military march music in the orchestra.\u00a0 The chorus, who moved with grace and poise,\u00a0 demonstrated a beautiful and well amalgamated sound but clear diction and intention were lacking from the words which deprived the text of its inherent drama. The very fine orchestra played with precision, but the conductor\u00a0Eugene Kohn<\/strong>\u00a0did not seem to be able to elicit strong dynamic contrasts or musical tension, which sapped a lot of excitement from the production.\u00a0 Now and then there were also problems of\u00a0 syncronization both within the ensemble and between stage and orchestra.
\nThe cast alongside Domingo on the opening night was completely Chinese.\u00a0Sun Xiuwei<\/strong>\u00a0as Abigaille, was not in a role most suited to her vocality. \u00a0Beautiful in the lirical, she lacked weight in the lower notes and didn\u2019t show the vocal aggressiveness needed to portray this formidable role. \u00a0On the other hand, the beautiful, rich and full voice, of\u00a0Yang Guang,<\/strong>\u00a0seamless throughout the entire range, was even too much for the role of Fenena. \u00a0Liang Li<\/strong>\u00a0gave a powerful and convincing performance as Zaccaria combining a commanding vocal and stage presence, easy extension, incisive diction and a beautiful and flexible timbre.\u00a0\u00a0Jin Zhengjian<\/strong>\u00a0was a fervent Ismaele, although vocally light and tense.\u00a0\u00a0Zhao Ming<\/strong>\u00a0as the High Priest of Baal,\u00a0Liu Naiqui<\/strong>\u00a0as Abdallo and\u00a0Zhang Jing<\/strong>\u00a0as Anna\u00a0 all gave accurate and competent performances on both evenings. \u00a0In the alternating European cast of the second night, the Italian tenor,\u00a0Luciano Ganci<\/strong>, as Ismaele stood out, thanks to his fine, even lyric quality and elegant phrasing.\u00a0\u00a0Anna Pirozzi<\/strong>\u00a0was resolute as Abigaille and notable for her sustained, spun\u00a0pianissimi.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>Vladimir Stoyanov<\/strong>, as Nabucco, vocally gave \u00a0biting edge to the role, but had a rather withdrawn stage-presence.\u00a0Kristinn Sigmundsson<\/strong>\u00a0 as Zaccaria, at the start showed a captivating quality in his middle register but later displayed difficulty both in his upper and lower ones. Both performances were enthusiastically received by the public, but the first night, with Domingo, was, as to be expected, a triumph.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Beijing, NCPA, Opera Season\u00a0 2013 \u201cNABUCCO\u201d Opera in four acts, libretto by Temistocle Solera Composer\u00a0Giuseppe Verdi Nabucco\u00a0PLACIDO DOMINGO\/VLADIMIR […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":53540,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5890,5744,5357,9354,5358,2375,153,5504,902,105,145,268,1311],"class_list":["post-66750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-senza-categoria","tag-anna-pirozzi","tag-eugene-kohn","tag-ezio-frigerio","tag-foreign-readers","tag-franca-squarciapino","tag-gilbert-deflo","tag-giuseppe-verdi","tag-kristinn-sigmundsson","tag-luciano-ganci","tag-nabucco","tag-opera-lirica","tag-placido-domingo","tag-vladimir-stoyanov"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/105"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}