NABUCCO OPERA: A MASTERPIECE IN SPACE AND TIME
Of the twenty-six operas created by Verdi (1813-1901), Nabucco is classified as one of the earliest and at the same time one of the best in his creative legacy. The two operas written for her, despite the composer's high hopes, did not find the support of the demanding Italian audience, and the play "King for a Moment" was even booed during the premiere, which led the young composer not only to despair but also to a later decision. write music… The creative crisis was deepened by a personal tragedy - the death of his wife and two children.
Moving away from composing, he devoted his life to symphonic conducting, studying church music, organizing concerts and strongly rejected any proposals to write a new opera, although the impresario of that time, unlike the opera audience, knew and understood that Verdi was the composer. , which has the potential creative potential not only to continue the traditions of W. Bellini and G. Donizetti, but also to give Italian opera music an impetus in tune with the creative trends of European artistic life, which set itself life. The formation of a new type of opera began - not only psychological musical drama, but also philosophical direction. Mostly in the historical plot embodiment, which reflected significant events and actions, but had a projection on the life of that time. Historical and heroic opera genre will find in the person of J. Verdi is not only an apologist, but also an exceptionally talented artist who will convey in his operas the most pressing and exciting problems of the then world progress, including the passionate desire of the Italians to liberate their land from Austrian rule. It is with the name of G. Verdi associated with the birth and formation of the "Opera Risorgimento", and with the opera "Nabucco" musical understanding of the events associated with the revolutionary movement of Garibaldi for the liberation and unification of Italy. The projection into the distant past of human civilization was only a form of expression, and the meaning was the sharpness of the feeling of those historical events that burned the heart of every Italian. The opera was about Israel, but everyone understood that Verdi did not mean the slavery of the Jewish people, but the captivity of the Italians. which will convey in his operas the most pressing and exciting problems of the then world progress, including the passionate desire of the Italians to liberate their land from Austrian rule. It is with the name of G. Verdi associated with the birth and formation of the "Opera Risorgimento", and with the opera "Nabucco" musical understanding of the events associated with the revolutionary movement of Garibaldi for the liberation and unification of Italy. The projection into the distant past of human civilization was only a form of expression, and the meaning was the sharpness of the feeling of those historical events that burned the heart of every Italian. The opera was about Israel, but everyone understood that Verdi did not mean the slavery of the Jewish people, but the captivity of the Italians. which will convey in his operas the most pressing and exciting problems of the then world progress, including the passionate desire of the Italians to liberate their land from Austrian rule. It is with the name of G. Verdi associated with the birth and formation of the "Opera Risorgimento", and with the opera "Nabucco" musical understanding of the events associated with the revolutionary movement of Garibaldi for the liberation and unification of Italy. The projection into the distant past of human civilization was only a form of expression, and the meaning was the sharpness of the feeling of those historical events that burned the heart of every Italian. The opera was about Israel, but everyone understood that Verdi did not mean the slavery of the Jewish people, but the captivity of the Italians. It is with the name of G. Verdi associated with the birth and formation of the "Opera Risorgimento", and with the opera "Nabucco" musical understanding of the events associated with the revolutionary movement of Garibaldi for the liberation and unification of Italy. The projection into the distant past of human civilization was only a form of expression, and the meaning was the sharpness of the feeling of those historical events that burned the heart of every Italian. The opera was about Israel, but everyone understood that Verdi did not mean the slavery of the Jewish people, but the captivity of the Italians. It is with the name of G. Verdi associated with the birth and formation of the "Opera Risorgimento", and with the opera "Nabucco" musical understanding of the events associated with the revolutionary movement of Garibaldi for the liberation and unification of Italy. The projection into the distant past of human civilization was only a form of expression, and the meaning was the sharpness of the feeling of those historical events that burned the heart of every Italian. The opera was about Israel, but everyone understood that Verdi did not mean the slavery of the Jewish people, but the captivity of the Italians. and the meaning was the sharpness of the feeling of those historical events that burned the heart of every Italian. The opera was about Israel, but everyone understood that Verdi did not mean the slavery of the Jewish people, but the captivity of the Italians. and the meaning was the sharpness of the feeling of those historical events that burned the heart of every Italian. The opera was about Israel, but everyone understood that Verdi did not mean the slavery of the Jewish people, but the captivity of the Italians.
The history of writing "Nabucco" has some incomprehensible and even mysterious and mystical moments. After receiving an offer from La Scala director Bartolomeo Merelli to create an opera for his famous troupe, Verdi flatly refused to even read the text of the proposed libretto, reiterating that he no longer wrote not only opera but music in general.
Later in his autobiography, he will recall this episode of his creative biography as follows: “Returning home from Mereli, I felt that I was again overwhelmed by the mad, uncontrollable longing, deep sorrow and anguish that gripped my chest. At home, I abruptly toss the manuscript on the table and freeze over it as if dug in. Falling, the manuscript opens with the words: "Fly, my opinion, on golden wings…" I read a few more lines. They just captivated me. They breathed the Bible, which always brought me indescribable pleasure. But he remembered the word he had given himself - not to write more music, put down his notebook and went to bed. But in vain… "Nabucco" drilled my brain. There was no sleep. I took the manuscript and read the libretto several times. By morning he knew the libretto by heart. But I was not going to change my own decision. And the next day he went to the theater to return the manuscript to Merelli »…
Amazing thing! The composer returned from the theater with one thought - to immediately sit down to write a new opera.
Almost by accident, J. Verdi returned to composing. It is even difficult to imagine how much humanity would have lost had it not been for the accidental meeting of the desperate composer with the director of La Scala Merelli, who offered him a brilliant text by Themistocles Soler.
In the autumn of 1841 the work on the opera was completed, and in February 1842 rehearsals for a new work began in La Scala, which attracted the attention of Italian music lovers not only because one of the main parts was to perform the famous Italian singer Giuseppina Strepponi, but above all , melodies of choral scenes, which long before the premiere were already sung on the streets of Milan.
On March 9, 1842, the premiere of the opera Nabucco took place, which instantly made Verdi famous. The opera impressed the audience with its monumentality and at the same time the depth of human feelings, musical expression and fullness.
The protagonist of the opera is King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon (Nabucco), ruler of the ancient kingdom, whose name caused fear in all the peoples of that time, as mentioned in the Bible (Book IV, 23, 24). He is ruthless and cruel, unbridled in anger, ready to incinerate cities and villages in the name of his god Baal, ready to sacrifice even the life of his own daughter, just to satisfy the insatiability of the god of war. By conquering the Jews, he not only destroyed their main temple, turned the free inhabitants of Jerusalem into slaves, but also proclaimed himself a god. At the insidious persuasion of his second daughter, Abigail, born of a slave girl who secretly dreams of ascending the paternal throne, Nabucco curses his own daughter, Fenena, who defends the enslaved people and sentences her to death. His immeasurable audacity provokes the wrath of Jehovah's One God, which deprives Nabucco of reason. Once the almighty king is experiencing terrible torments of contempt and mental anguish. Instant enlightenment gives you a chance to become human again. He apologizes to Jehovah and overturns Abigail's terrible decree of execution of the Assyrian people.
Verdi's music pulsed with powerful energy, expression in the disclosure of each character and dramaturgy of events (especially in choral passions), giving arias, ensembles of psychological content, internal dynamics in the disclosure of characters, which surpassed the opera among the best examples of musical art of the time. The Jewish choir from this opera "Va, pensiero« "is not only congenial in form and melody, but also the brightest manifestation of patriotism in musical drama. It was performed by a choir of 800 singers under the direction of Arturo Toscanini during the funeral ceremony of Verdi (1901), and during World War II became the anthem of Italian patriots who fought against fascism.
"Nabucco", the world premiere of which took place on March 9, 1842, took place on the stage of La Scala 57 times in a crowded hall! Unheard of even for La Scala! The opera made Verdi not just famous, but the first composer in Italy.
The theme of the struggle for freedom and independence will be reflected in a number of subsequent works by J. Verdi "Lombards in the Crusades", "Hernani" ("Hernani" (1844), "Jeanne de Arc" (1845), "Attila" (1846), "Macbeth"). 1847), The Battle of Legnano (1849), Don Carlos (1867). The content will reflect the historical events of different peoples and different eras, but in essence the composer will reflect the desire of Italians for independence and freedom. Another thing is that his music will evoke patriotic sentiments of other nations, in particular in the heroic and tragic era of the "Spring of Nations", which stirred up revolutionary sentiments throughout Europe - from Hungary to Greece!
In the 50s and 60s of the 19th century, Nabucco triumphed on almost all major Italian opera stages. But, unlike the next opera, Hernani, which was shown on major European opera stages, Nabucco was virtually unreadable on other stages and was shown mostly by Italian companies in France, Germany, Russia, England and other countries. It so happened that Verdi's opera Nabucco was first staged at the National Opera of Ukraine almost a century and a half after it was written. The premiere, as a joint French-German-Ukrainian art project, took place on May 15, 1993 (conductor Volodymyr Kozhukhar, choirmaster Lev Venediktov (Ukraine), director Pierre Jean Valentin (France) artists Andreas Schalla, Irene Gertman (Germany). The performance in the director's decision was characterized by classical simplicity, rigor and logical clarity of the plot, which developed in a lapidary format of scenography, where the main means of expression were several details - the throne, crown, sword of Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar, stairs and walls of massive boulders, alternately symbolizing Babylon and the walls of Jerusalem ruin. The producers deliberately avoided details and mock elements that would link events to time and specific events. The play developed as one of the dramatic pages of biblical history. This is exactly what J. Verdi wanted, embodying his opera on the La Scala stage, feeling an irresistible desire to add another biblical scene - the congenial aria of the prophecy of Zechariah, which was not in the original author's score. The main parts were performed by Ivan Ponomarenko (Nabucco), Alexander Vostryakov (Izmail), Lyudmila Yurchenko (Fenena), Svetlana Dobronravova (Abigail), Slovak singer Jan Galla (Zacharia). In June 1993, the Kyiv play was performed four times with great success at the Strasbourg International Music Festival and in Avignon, France. In 2000, the Nabucco Opera was staged by the S. Krushelnytska Lviv National Opera and Ballet Theater.
"Nabucco" by G. Verdi (conductor-director Mykola Dyadyura, director-director Anatoliy Solovyanenko, production artist Maria Levitska, choirmaster Bohdan Plish) is carried out as a joint Ukrainian-Italian opera project.
