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She is on the verge of death, which she admits is a just punishment for her crimes. She asks Nabucco to bless Fenena and Ismaele, and implores Jehovah to forgive her. Abigaille dies. Music possessed the power to transform, to fill and shape silence, to change moods, and to express that which existed beyond words. And by uniting humanity with sounds and music, man could achieve transcendence. Music also possessed logical order, its mathematical relationships considered synonymous with the divine cosmic order of the universe; therefore, music represented the metaphysical key to truth and beauty.

The ancient Greeks also believed that the human voice was a sacred and divine gift; it was considered the most noble and ideal musical instrument that possessed the capability to express the entire range of human emotions, passions, aspirations, yearnings and desires.

In the early seventeenth century, in Florence, Italy, a think-tank of intellectuals known as the Camerata, sought to recreate what they believed were the techniques of ancient Greek drama: the integration of music to realize the text and intensify the drama; they succeeded, and modern opera was born. But during the next two centuries, when most opera was dominated by the Italians, the art form surrendered the ideals that inspired its Camerata founders; opera had become a showcase for singers rather than music drama, or an idealized integration of text and music.

The singer dominated the opera stage, his talents considered a magnificent blend of art and science; but most operas were merely an amalgam of showpieces for these charismatic singers. The bel canto singer emphasized beauty of sound, fine legato phrasing, a masterful breath control, agility in florid passages, and an effortless realization of high notes.

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The voice was the supreme vehicle to create and eloquently express dramatic elements; it was accomplished through inflections of the vocal line, dynamics, ornamentation, and acrobatics or feats of vocal fireworks and virtuosity. But vocal pyrotechnics superseded heightened dramatic and theatrical elements, and generally, the underlying literary values of librettos were often secondary considerations: many librettos were humdrum and hackneyed, even though written by extremely talented and original craftsmen who often Opera Journeys Mini Guide Series Page 16 adapted their stories from acclaimed plays and novels; Schiller, Shakespeare, Lord Byron, Hugo, Scott, and Bulwer Lytton.

But the goal of opera was pure entertainment rather than idealized art: the dramas rarely contained any organic relationship with their underlying music, or integration of text and music.


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G iuseppe Verdi began composing opera during the first half of the nineteenth century, a time when the Italian public was thoroughly enamored by the bel canto genre. The most prominent composer of the era was Gioacchino Rossini , the composer of 37 extremely popular operas, who dominated the opera landscape in both the opera buffa and opera seria genres.

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In addition, there were many cavatinas, simple or short arias for the principal singer; cabalettas, or brisk last sections of an aria or duet, that at times included several sections; and strettas, an acceleration of the tempo to create a sense of climax. By design, rather than technical limitation, the orchestra was generally reduced to its utmost simplicity, often just an accompanist: in the bel canto genre, melody dominated, and by necessity, the orchestra generally became subdued when the singer was singing, regardless of the dramatic elements.

Their bel canto scores were saturated with showpieces for singers, and accompaniments set to dance rhythms were the rule rather than the exception.

It was this Rossinian bel canto style that Richard Wagner found intolerable and excessive, an Italianism that he considered an artistic evil. Wagner became obsessed to rescue and redeem the world from those superfluities; the devils were Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, and, of course, Verdi. For this noble expression of the mind they have hardly more respect than for the art of cooking. They want a score that, like a plate of macaroni, can be assimilated immediately without having to think about it, or even pay attention to it. But over the next half of the nineteenth century, Verdi would add a new spirit to opera, introducing a new thrust of power and passion through his music.

The young composer was further encouraged after Ricordi bought the score for publication, as well as a contract he received from Merelli for three more operas. Oberto relates a struggle for power in northern Italy during the thirteenth century. Its libretto, earlier written by Antonio Piazza, but later completed by the year old Temistocle Solera reflects the typical weaknesses of humdrum librettos of the era: ultimately, its story became secondary to the quality of the underlying music and its inherent vocal demands.

In the score, Verdi was not forging any new paths or breaking new ground; he was composing within the existing forms and conventions of the bel canto era, largely those created by Rossini. It is a story based loosely on an incident that occurred during the War of the Polish Succession in During the composition of Un Giorno di Regno, Verdi suffered a shocking personal tragedy: the death of his wife Margherita from encephalitis.

Earlier his two children had died: his one year-old daughter Virginia , and his son Icilio, who died just before the premiere of Oberto. Verdi became distraught and despairing: he tried unsuccessfully to be released from his contract with Merelli, but was forced to complete the comic opera during a time when his soul was tormented by personal tragedies. The opera premiered at La Scala in September and was a devastating failure: a hostile audience erupted into much booing and hissing, and the press reviews were unfavorable.

All future performances were cancelled. Like Un Giorno di Regno, with the singular success of Oberto, Verdi had been king for a day: a short moment of glory. Verdi concluded that in both his personal and professional life, his dreams had crumbled: he was overcome by bitterness by his failures and sulked in deep depression; he announced his determination never to compose again.

The libretto was Nabucco Page 19 originally intended for the young Prussian composer, Otto Nicolai, but he contemptuously rejected it in favor of Il Proscritto, which ironically was a dismal failure at its La Scala premiere in March After Merelli gave him the libretto he returned home; with indifference, he violently threw the manuscript on a table. He was ostensibly firm in his resolve never to compose again, but the qualities he perceived in the libretto began to inspire him, and slowly, he overcame his resistance.

Over the next months, Merelli pursued his crusade to coax the young composer. Eventually, a note was transformed into a musical phrase, and those phrases were transformed into an opera score. Giuseppina Strepponi, the woman Verdi would marry seventeen years later, although in poor voice, sang the demanding dramatic soprano role of the villainess Abigaille.

The audience erupted into wild enthusiasm at the conclusion of Part I, but their fervor exploded into delirium as the performance progressed. With Nabucco, Verdi became the inspirational composer of the Italian Risorgimento, and to the delight of his compatriots, he would incorporate emotional anthems for Italian liberation in his 12 subsequent operas. Verdi died in In his will, he had instructed that his funeral be simple; it was attended by just a handful of few people, and there was to be no music.

From to , the Assyrians attempted to conquer the entire region; these were wars that were primarily fought for the control of agricultural land. According to biblical history, David united the southern kingdom of Judah with the northern kingdom of Israel , primarily to unite a strong force to oppose foreign invasions. In , Tiglath-pileser III ascended the Assyrian throne, determined to transform his old kingdom into an empire; it was the beginning of Assyrian imperialism.

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In , the Assyrians destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel and divided the territory politically by transporting most of the population to Assyria where they were assimilated into the surrounding population; the Assyrians recolonized Israel, which now became Samaria. It was the first great tragedy of Jewish history: the northern people of Israel were forcibly deported to Assyria and the kingdom of Israel ceased to exist; the northern tribes were dispersed and moved from history to myth. In the south, the kingdom of Judah was terrified by the collapse of Israel and feared a similar fate.

The holy city of Jerusalem survived a fierce siege by the Assyrians in , presumably rescued by a violent outbreak of the bubonic plague that struck the Assyrian camp. The Neo-Babylonian Empire began to arise in Nabopolassar, father of Nebuchadnezzar, was the founder of the Neo-Babylonian, or Chaldean dynasty; apparently a general appointed by the Assyrians, but who successfully rebelled against them.

With the collapse of the great Assyrian city of Nineveh in , the new power of Babylon began its domination of the territory. Nebuchadnezzar succeeded his father as king BC , ruling Babylon for 42 years.

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He became a powerful and autocratic despot, conquering surrounding nations, and adopting the same policy in his wars as earlier Assyrian kings: deporting whole populations after he defeated them. Nabucco Page 21 Another prophet emerged. According to the biblical account, Nebuchadnezzar accomplished three deportations of the Judeans: In , the First Deportation, which would have included Daniel along with other royal personages Daniel In , the Second deportation occurred after the Judean King Jehoiachin surrendered.

There are conflicting reports in the Old Testament: he was either defeated and carried off to Babylon, or according to Jeremiah , dragged from Jerusalem and killed. The chief priests were put to death and Zedekiah was blinded, carried in fetters to Babylon 2 Kings Nebuchadnezzar appointed a governor, Gedaliah, to rule the remaining people of the land.

It is believed that Nebuchadnezzar built the gardens for his wife, the Medean queen Amyitis, who had grown up in the midst of lofty green mountains, and found it difficult to adjust to the flat, hot plains of Babylon. To ease her homesickness, Nebuchadnezzar constructed the elaborate gardens and terraces, providing an ingenious irrigation system to pump water from the Euphrates.

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As Jeremiah was a prophet to the people in Jerusalem and Judah, Ezekiel, his younger contemporary, was the prophet of the Judeans in exile. Babylon was far richer economically than Judah, and many exiles, even though Babylonian captives, enjoyed privileges that enabled them to rise to positions of prominence and wealth.

The Babylonians still allowed Jehoiachin to bear the title of king of Judah, a sovereign without a realm. But many of the exiles were poor, and naturally became discouraged and afflicted with nostalgia. Eventually, he was driven from power and lived with the beasts of the field, eating grass like an ox. Within four years, AmelMarduk was slain by his brother-in-law, who in turn reigned only four years; he was succeeded by son, who was murdered after reigning only a few months.

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In , Cyrus declared an edict that commanded the Judeans to return to their homeland. T emistocle Solera adapted the libretto of Nabucco essentially from the French play, Nabuchodonosor, by August Anicet-Bourgeois and Francis Cornu , and the scenario of the ballet Nabuccodonosor, by Antonio Cortesi ; both were theatrical works of pure melodrama that were very loosely based upon Old Testament references to the historical Babylonian emperor Nebuchadnezzar and his subjugation of the kingdom of Judah; with the exception of Nebuchadnezzar, all the other characters in the story were inventions of the various authors.

In the play, Fenena had been executed along with the Exiles, but restored to life by divine intervention; in the opera libretto, Nabucco arrives in time to save Fenena just before she is about to be executed.


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In the finale of the play, Nabucco kills Abigaille, but in the opera libretto, Abigaille has taken poison, an action that is not explained in depth, but no doubt reflects the failure of her rebellion against Nabucco. However, Abigaille is forgiven and redeemed after the announcement of her worship of Jehovah.

Indeed, as the opera story accurately relates, the southern kingdom of Judah fell to Nebuchadnezzar in the fifth century, the holy Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed, and most of the population was exiled to Babylonia. The heroes of the story are the Hebrew Exiles, whose undaunted faith pervades the entire drama. Verdi was temperamentally and ideologically a man of Enlightenment ideals: throughout his life he expressed his abomination of absolute power and deified civil liberty; those ideals were manifested in a passionate crusade against every form of tyranny, whether social, political, or ecclesiastical.

Nabucco provided Verdi with a platform to express his fears of absolute power, and by inference, his profound idealism and noble conception of humanity. Similarly, Nabucco is an opera in which the chorus of Exiles is the main protagonist: undaunted in their faith in God, and impassioned in their plea for freedom. Levites, priests of the Hebrew tribe of Levi, Hebrews, and Temple Virgins, convey their despair in contrasting musical sequences, mostly unison chord harmonies.

Earlier, in Part I, Zaccaria opposed Nabucco by threatening to kill his daughter Fenena with a dagger. There was a great deal of vocal talent on the stage as well, and one of the stronger points of the libretto is that the characters come and go with a frequency that makes the listener anticipate and look forward to seeing and hearing more of them. In the title role, soprano Rachele Schmiege sang with a ringing, powerful voice of clarion tones. She was at her best in the full-throttle passages, but she is quite capable of bringing out the more tender, bewildered and heart-broken aspects of the character as well.

In action, she brought out the transitions of the characterization well, and as a whole made quite an impression on the audience. Her husband, tenor Stefan Barner , sang the role of the Prince. It was his first appearance on any Pittsburgh stage, and he, too, created an excellent impression as the not especially gallant, somewhat fickle nobleman, but his character flaws are easily forgiven in that Rusalka cannot explain her aloofness to a human. His is a lyric tenor of considerable brilliance, and he sang the vocally taxing part almost effortlessly through to the end.

As the Three Wood Nymphs, Rebecca Shorstein , Erin Schmura and Zanna Fredland capered about the proceedings in a fashion quite fitting of mythical sprites, and in ensemble and solo passages sang with lovely voices. Benjamin Robinson , the talented lyric tenor familiar to local audiences, provided comic relief as the Gamekeeper, and sang his two brief scenes with his accustomed skill, delivering the almost baritonal music to surprisingly good effect and with the greatest of ease. He was ably partnered by soprano Joanna Latini as his nephew, the Kitchen Boy, an engagingly comic actress with a strong and colorful voice.

A large ensemble of singers behind the scenes occasionally chanted observations quite effectively. A wizard of a makeup designer transformed her into a harrowing sight; wild-eyed and disheveled, garbed in layers of rags, she crouched and slithered about the stage, acting the part with animalistic movements and facial expressions that made her a very believable denizen of some formidably deep, dark netherworld.

Her voice is perfectly suited to the demands of the music, with ringing top tones eclipsed only by cavernous, rock-solid lows. Only one more performance of this operatic rarity remains — Sunday, May Perhaps one of the most indulgently delightful moments in cinema in the 80s takes place during a gleefully macabre funeral for two high school jocks in the cult classic The Heathers. The recent production of Heathers: The Musical presented by Comtra Theatre ostentatiously proved me wrong. Translating Heathers into a musical format allows for the cruelties and the ludicrous banalities of the lives and deaths of the students of Westerburg High to be intensified in an outrageously campy way.

The nearly flawless execution of the Heathers: The Musical —which is so prosperous in part because of its incredibly tight direction and perfectly-timed pacing that bypasses much of the superfluous over-exposition that plagues many musicals especially movie-to-musical adaptations —accentuates these absurdities with pitch-perfect robustness. The story of Heathers is, without spoiling too much, one of teenage awkwardness, ruthlessness and vengeance that is both distinctly 80s and profoundly universal.

A quintessentially edgy-but-awkward girl Veronica Victoria Buchtan inadvertently finds herself inextricably intertwined in a venomous group of elite popular girls, all named Heather. At the same time, Veronica becomes romantically attached to the nomadic, unreasonably brooding JD Cody Larko , who involves Veronica in a world of violence and depravity as a way of contending with the amorality of the Heathers and the other debauched popular elite. On a performance level, this recent production of Heathers is nearly unrivaled in terms of the outstanding vocal and musical capabilities of the cast members individually and as an ensemble.

A special nod should be given to Reist, whose sumptuously droll performance, whether in song or in standard dialogue, gave new life to the ringleader originally played by notoriously scathing Shannen Doherty in such a way that it has left a remarkable impression.