Yet another father role in the Verdi canon (he seems to do best with these). Domingo, as legendary as he is, is subject to the same situation.īut Nabucco fits him like a glove. As is the case, every singer has roles that suits their vocal sensibilities and style and others that don’t work. Much has been said about whether Domingo is a baritone or not, but the truth is that the conversation really has no relevance or even importance as is little more than a distraction. Let’s take a look at the title role, one of the most popular baritone parts in the repertoire, and for good reason.
This alone makes an opera like Nabucco a tough proposition for any house, particularly in casting all five roles that play into the drama of the work.īut the Metropolitan Opera’s cast, which stars Placido Domingo and Liudmyla Monastyrska, hit all the right notes. The roles of Nabucco and Abigaile clamor for singers of the delicate bel canto sensibilities, and yet at times the challenges of the roles are akin to those endured by the heft and potency of Wagnerian voices. This struggle permeates the entirety of Verdi’s work, from its constantly ingenuous musical expression to its stop-start narrative where action is usually relegated to the background, to the very characters themselves and the demands they make on the interpreters. Paradoxically, where one exists, it is truly impossible for the other to survive. It is this contrast between war and harmonic conciliation and peace that drives this opera, the power-hungry Babylonians trying to conquer a Jewish community that only wants to be left along to venerate their God. From there Verdi’s music traverses the contrast between a glorious melody clamoring for peace and one of military drive. Verdi’s famed overture for his first masterwork “Nabucco” starts off with a few brass calls followed by a massive explosion of sound a few bars later.
This review is for the performance on Friday, Dec.
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