Going to a live performance at the Arena
di Verona and watching the same performance
on a TV screen are actually two diametrically
opposite experiences. On location one
can’t help being impressed by the sheer
size of the arena, the stage, the architectonically
grouped enormous choral forces and the
feeling of sitting there amidst 20,000
other opera-lovers during that mild
summer evening while the dark blue sky
becomes ever darker during the performance.
The downside is that what is normally
the core of any opera - the interplay
between the central characters, the
main conflicts - is more or less marginalized.
On TV the mass effects feel curiously
distanced, while the drama can sometimes
be transferred straight into one’s living
room provided the singers are good actors
who can stand close scrutiny from close-up
cameras. But since the projection and
the action is dimensioned to reach out
at least to the audience in the stalls
there is still much of a compromise.
In Nabucco, Verdi’s third opera
and his break-through work, the chorus
plays a central part, not only for singing
the piece that almost every person,
classically oriented or not, knew and
could hum a generation or so ago, the
Hebrew prisoners’ chorus, but also for
lots of massed singing passages all
through the opera; the chorus is almost
constantly on stage. At Verona this
is a problem, since the two hundred
singers have to be placed on the stairs
that provide most of the space and there
is very little a director can do to
create change. Once there the singers
can’t be expected to move around so
they are more or less a decorative back-drop,
beautifully positioned but not very
alive, and it gives quite an absurd
impression when in one scene some soldiers
are fighting while the chorus just stand
there, motionless. Luckily they sing
well and the chorus master, Corrado
Mirandola, who is not mentioned in the
credits on the back of the DVD box,
is worthy of great praise.
The acting from the main characters
is on the whole not much to write home
about, with one notable exception: Renato
Bruson. He is mostly quite restrained
when it comes to gestures but his face,
and especially his eyes, mirror the
different facets of his character. Whether
this carried out to the audience is
hard to tell. The others are fully content
to walk about and make some stock gestures
... and I have to say that the costumes
in several cases make you smile instead
of conveying the tragic undertones of
the drama.
The singing is variable: Zaccaria, one
of the most grateful bass roles in the
operatic repertoire, is sung by Dimiter
Petkov, who is unsteady and worn. The
young Ellero d’Artegna who sings well
in the small role of High Priest, would
probably have been a better choice.
Ottavio Garaventa’s Ismaele is strained
and in his dynamic gear-box there is
only one gear: forte. Bruna Baglioni,
a sadly under-recorded singer, is a
good Fenena but the really superior
singing comes from Bruson and the impressive
Dimitrova. She has a bright and voluminous
voice with not a hint of a wobble, rare
indeed for big dramatic voices. Add
to this a rare sensitivity to nuances.
Abigaille’s great aria in the second
act is sung with restraint and dignity
and she delivers masterly diminuendos;
a highpoint in this performance. Together
with Bruson, the Nabucco – Abigaille
duet in act 3 is another highlight,
challenging the legendary Gobbi–Suliotis
recording from the sixties. And Bruson,
at the height of his powers around 1980,
has a magnificent voice: evenly produced,
voluminous, warm and rounded and with
a legato singing that made many commentators
liken him to Battistini - the highest
praise a baritone gan be given. He is
not such a superb voice-actor
as Tito Gobbi but as an instrument his
voice wins hands down. The great act
4 aria, Dio di Giuda, has probably
never been sung so well. These two singers
make this DVD a worthwhile buy and when
one tires of the not very inspiring
acting it can be played as a common
CD.
I think all the Verona DVDs, originally
released as videos in the 1980s (in
some cases I saw them on TV) start with
a kind of documentary showing the preparations
for the performance and the audience
coming to the arena. Also, very atmospherically,
we get the last few minutes before the
start of the performance, all those
thousands of candellini, little candles,
that are lit in the audience. At least
to someone who has experienced this
on-site it evokes pleasant memories.
Brian Large does what can be done to
get some life in the action, Maurizio
Arena ensures good playing from his
orchestral forces and the sound, without
being in any way special, never lets
the performance down. There are enough
cuing points to make it possible to
pick and choose among the titbits. There
is also a synopsis in the box.
Definitely not a desert-island DVD but
for Dimitrova’s and Bruson’s singing
well worth owning.
Göran Forsling
Orchestra and Chorus of the Arena di Verona/Maurizio
Arena 
NVC
ARTS 0630-19390-2 [approx. 130:00] 
