Germany Verdi, Nabucco: Soloists, Refrain and Extras of Festspieloper Prag. Prager Festspielorchester / Martin Doubravský (conductor). Seebühne Bremen, 22.7.2024. (DM-D)
Manufacturing
Director – Oldrich Kríž
Solid:
Abigaille – Liana Sass
Fenena – Hana Dobešová
Ismaele – Josef Moravec
Nabucco – Martin Bárta
Zaccaria – Jurij Kruglov
Excessive Priest of Baal – Oldrich Kríž
This manufacturing of Verdi’s opera, originating in Prague, has been touring open-air venues for numerous years already, over the summer time months with various casts. A promoting level within the promoting is the spectacular nature of the occasion, each by way of the opera’s in style enchantment, particularly due to its well-known refrain, and by way of the opulence of the staging in gorgeous outside places not normally related to efficiency.
The Seebühne in Bremen is situated on the shores of the river Weser, within the industrial space of the town, adjoining to an enormous, comparatively lately constructed procuring centre. It has been used for a couple of weeks over the summer time predominantly for pop and rock music and stand-up comedy. The stage is makeshift, not everlasting, and doesn’t present a lot depth. For the efficiency of Nabucco, the steel building of the stage was solely partly coated by makeshift black material cloth. The small orchestra was positioned behind the stage in entrance of the see-through plastic sheet providing a view of the river. The set consisted of some rectangular plastic boulders representing rocks, which have been positioned in numerous methods to sign completely different locales. On either side, a triangular raised platform with a column supplied the body. A picket throne on a palette-sized picket platform was moved on and off the stage as wanted. The costumes have been wealthy and vibrant (particularly as represented filmed and projected dwell on to the massive screens to the left and proper of the stage). The set was thus cleverly constructed to suit the quite a few completely different stage environments the corporate will encounter on its tour, straightforward to shift and transport, purposeful relatively than spectacular. The blocking was equally purposeful, with easy entrances and exits from and into the wings stage left and proper. Martin Doubravský coaxed enthusiastic enjoying from his orchestra, with swift tempi and a superb sense of rhythm. The scale of the orchestra additionally meant that there was by no means any hazard of drowning out the singers’ voices, additionally as a result of each orchestra and singers have been amplified by the venue’s sound system and blended properly. Liana Sass made a lot of the extraordinarily tough position of Abigaille. Her voice was robust and agency, her intonation safe from the beginning. She was capable of modulate her quantity as wanted, her breath management was strong, her decrease register very robust for a soprano, and there have been solely occasional shrill moments within the coloratura.
Jurij Kruglov as Zaccaria was the viewers’s favorite, and rightly so, because of his voluminous, melodic bass and wonderful breath management that allowed him to sing notably long-held arcs. Martin Bárta as Nabucco was spectacular in his vocal journey by insanity, capturing hubris and humility in equal measure.
Hana Dobešová overcame an preliminary downside with intonation to sing Fenena movingly with a very warm and wealthy decrease vary of the voice. Josef Moravec progressed from forcing his voice to permitting it to swing with the music, producing some very lovely sounds in the midst of the night. The manufacturing’s director, Oldrich Kríž, contributed a dependable Excessive Priest.
The refrain numbered about 30, and the stage was relatively crowded once they have been all on it. Notably in ‘Va, pensiero’ their singing got here throughout as very mild and considerate, relatively than rousing. It was given as an encore throughout the last applause. The viewers clearly loved the occasion.
Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe
