Nabucco sounded like thunder on the Peralada stage. The two hundred artists of the choir and the orchestra of the Teatro Real demonstrated their power on Saturday night together with the incontestable cast chosen for this Verdi: Anna Pirozzi (Abigaille), George Petean (Nabucco), Alexander Vinogradov (Zaccaria)... practically the same singers who triumphed with this title a few dates ago at the Madrid Coliseum.
All of them directed by the infallible Nicola Luisotti, they left the festival audience nailed to their seats, even though it was a concert version. The music prevailed in an operatic evening in which the audience that filled the capacity of the Auditori del Parc did not even seem to miss the subtitles. Seven minutes of applause and ovations sealed an extraordinary Saturday night in the Empordà.
Verdi had written it at a terrible time, after losing his wife and two of his children. He had considered giving up composing when he received Temistocle Solera's libretto, based on the Old Testament and the play Nabuchodonosor, by Anicète Bourgeois and Francis Cornue. The opera became a music landmark associated with scripture. The theme had already been the subject of innumerable baroque oratorios when romantic opera ended up addressing it as well: Donizetti, Gounod, Saint-Saëns...
Although none like Verdi made the difference. His Nabucco ended up being a symbol of the risorgimento thanks to the famous “Va, pensiero”, the choir of Hebrew slaves that had lost the First Temple of Jerusalem in Babylon. A choir that the Italians interpreted as a cry of freedom against the foreign oppression that they lived at the time.
Peralada took advantage of the choir and orchestra of the Royal Theater yesterday for the second time (which the day before had served the opera Hadrian by Rufus Wainwright), but with a luxury baton in the Italian repertoire. If already last summer Luisotti showed signs of being a magician of Puccinian emotions, in the Tosca that the Madrid ensembles offered in this same square, on this occasion he showed off his mastery of Verdian tempos and contrasts.
The maestro skilfully accentuates the Italian composer's constant passage from the forte to the piano, and he does so without trauma, with the choir and orchestra always at one in this kind of martial operation at the service of art. Pirozzi shone with her own light in the role of the former slave who seems to be the daughter of Nabucco. The color of her voice is never affected by any of her vocal pirouettes, no matter how dramatic they are. And Petean caused a sensation in the last act, with the audience eager to thank her with bravos for her performance.
There was no lack of a pleasant ovation after the interpretation of "Va, pensiero". And anticipating the audience's reaction to the very recognizable melody, Luisotti controlled the final whisper of the chorus and lengthened it long enough for the silence to let the music breathe and guarantee its effect. Which unleashed the euphoria.
Among those attending the operatic evening in Peralada, Pau Gasol could be seen, possibly the athlete who most demonstrates his cultural concerns. At least in the summer night venues.
