by Janos Gereben

“Verdi is my desert-island opera composer. There is a classicism, a purity to his musical style that makes what he writes particularly effective, even in the earlier pieces. He truly speaks to the heart,” says West Bay Opera General Director José Luis Moscovich, explaining why he is scheduling an all-Verdi season in 2019–2020 in Palo Alto:

In this age of people living in the bubble of their own choice, we need artistic experiences that transcend the intellectual and give us a chance to connect at the emotional level, a bunch of strangers allowing themselves to feel the same feelings together, without thinking about what political statements the company is trying to make by the choice of programming (though one could) or trying to divine party affiliations.

It should be very healing for people to come and experience that, no matter what’s on CNN or Fox News that week. Sometimes, when activism is too dangerous or too complex, the role of art can be that of reminding people of their common humanity.

The operas are Nabucco (Oct. 18–27), Macbeth (Feb. 14–23, 2020), and La traviata (May 22–31, 2020).

The choice of Traviata, Moscovich says, “needs no explanation — it’s among Verdi’s finest scores, and it’s still the gold standard in opera. We haven’t done it in well over a decade.

Macbeth was the first opera WBO produced when Moscovich became general director more than a decade ago, and he says it deserves more frequent hearings: “It is the opera that speaks to the politics of our time, an opera about a usurper and his conscience.”

Nabucco is “about redemption, and we need a redemptive kind of hope these days.” What Moscovich calls “a real enabling factor” behind the choice of Nabucco and Macbeth is having “a viable Abigaile and Lady Macbeth in Christina Major. I think she will blow people away. I truly believe that she needs to be singing this kind of repertoire widely in the US and Europe, and I want to give her a chance to prove it.”

José Luis Moscovich conducting a performance with baritone Jason Duika, who will sing the title role of Nabucco as well as Germont in Traviatanext season. | Credit: Jump Otak

Moscovich, who provided Major with her role debut as Norma, gave Buenos Aires’ famed Teatro Colón a video of Major’s performance in Palo Alto, and she was cast there in the title role. Major also had her first Lucrezia in the WBO’s I due Foscari earlier this year.

Nabucco’s other principal roles are mezzo Claudia Chapa, baritone Jason Duika, tenor John Kun Park, and bass Benjamin Brady.

In the title role of Traviata, a young soprano from Phoenix, Anna Lisa Hackett, is making her WBO debut. The Alfredo will be Mario Rojas, a Mexican tenor, currently a member of Chicago Lyric Opera’s young artist program. Jason Duika is cast as Giorgio Germont.

In Macbeth, joining Major will be baritone Krassen Karagiozov in the title role, bass Benjamin Brady, and tenor Dane Suarez. Karagiozov has been a WBO regular, now with a burgeoning career in Europe, from Italy to Bulgaria.

Moscovich will conduct the three operas; Layna Chianakas is stage director for Nabucco, Ragnar Conde for Macbeth, Igor Vieira for Traviata. Bruce Olstad is the WBO chorus director. Set design is by Peter Crompton (Traviata and Macbeth), J.F. Revon (Nabucco).

Moscovich has headed the 64-year-old West Bay Opera (the West Coast’s oldest after SF Opera, which will have its centennial in four years) since 2006, presenting imaginative seasons of critically acclaimed productions. There is a striking comparison with its big sister to the North in that WBO relies on Palo Alto’s population of 67,000 (and a limited number of visitors from elsewhere), operating with a $560,000 budget. SF Opera is currently reducing its budget from $76 million to $71 million.

Moscovich is Argentinian, a UC Berkeley-trained transportation engineer and planner with 30 years of experience here, who recently retired from 12 years of service as executive director of the SF County Transportation Authority. Since he took over WBO, adventurous programming has been accompanied by fiscal stability, without a deficit even during the Great Recession.

WBO’s headquarters in the Holt Building, named for company founders Henry and Maria Holt, was renovated through a $100,000 capital campaign, and an endowment for the company is being planned. Moscovich increased the size of the orchestra and chorus (using every inch of the 425-seat Lucie Stern Theatre’s small stage) and he started WBOpera NOW (New Opera Works), an initiative to present operas by living Latin American composers.

You can see the original article by Janos Gereben, and others, at the following link:

https://www.sfcv.org/music-news/west-bay-operas-all-verdi-season-set-for-2019-2020

Nabucco

Giuseppe Verdi, Composer

Temistocle Solera, Librettist

West Bay Opera

How relevant can a near one-hundred-eighty-year opera be to modern audiences when there is an autocratic, egotistic ruler who subjugates people of a different ethnicity and nationality to imprisonment and relocation from their homeland and who begins to act and think of himself as a god?  Unfortunately in 2019, a story that originates in biblical times and is the subject of Giuseppe Verdi’s first break-through opera, Nabucco, is perhaps more apropos than ever before, with examples of such leaders currently over-populating the globe, both near and far. 

But what sets this historical tale’s ruler apart from most modern day despots is that this king, Nabucco (known in English as Nebuchadnezzar II), actually comes to grips with his own ego-inflated wrong-doings and completely transforms, in the end restoring to those he harms their nation, their lives, and their dignity.  If only it were possible to sit a few of today’s presidents, premiers, and princes in the audience of West Bay Opera’s Nabucco – the company’s opening production of its sixty-fourth season – in order for them to be as inspired and emotionally moved as was the opening night audience.

Nabucco, partly based on the books of Jeremiah and Daniel from the Hebrew Haftorah, relates the destruction of the Israelite’s Temple in Jerusalem by the invading Babylonian army in 587 BCE and of the subsequent deportation of the Jews to the victors’ homeland.  There, they are threatened with certain annihilation by the jealous, power-hungry daughter of the king, Abigaile, who seizes power from her father after he suddenly goes mad, his having been struck into babbling hysteria when declaring himself to be not king, but God.  But Abigaile is actually a former slave raised by Nabucco as his daughter.  His real daughter, Fenena, is a captive of the Israelites and has both fallen in love with the King of Jerusalem’s nephew, Ismaele, and has converted to his Jewish faith. 

Abigaile herself has passion for Ismaele, who rejects her offer of his and his people’s release if he will now love her instead of Fenena.  Her resultant tantrum against him and her sister explodes, eventually to include her father and leading to her fiery decree for all of their demises.  Only a divine re-awakening by the fallen, shaken, former king and a plea by him for God’s forgiveness can save himself, his daughter, and his newly adopted people, the Israelites.

On the intimate Lucie Stern stage, West Bay Opera begins Verdi’s epic story with a stage-filling chorus of thirty-three who – with outstretched hands – sing the moving harmonies of a prayer to their God: “Do not let thy children fall prey to a madman who scorns your everlasting right.”  Especially when the women roll their voices in waves of supplication is this initial exposure impressively moving for a chorus that Verdi will give ample opportunities to be heard during the two-hour, forty minute (with two intermissions) evening.  While the chorus under direction of Bruce Olstad sometimes lacks a totally solid, male foundation, overall the efforts made as a total ensemble are impressive the entire evening.  That is especially true when the full group sings – first with subdued, then with harmonically moving and organ-like tones – Verdi’s most famous choral piece, “Va, pensiero, sull’ali dorate” (“Fly, thought, on golden wings”).

After the Israelite’s initial prayer, Zaccaria, the High Priest of the Jews, rises forth to assure his gathered flock in a fatherly, soothing bass that “on the shores of Egypt, He saved the life of Moses” and thus will save them, too, from the approaching enemy.  As the arm-outreached High Priest, Benjamin Brady time and again uses a deep-welled voice teeming in impressive richness to comfort Zaccaria’s people, even when the worst seems imminent.  Each time they begin to panic, his resounding voice rises to engulf them with renewed belief in God’s care and promised protection.  Even in their direst moments, Benjamin Brady’s glorious voice rises in the confidence his Zaccaria has of God’s power to overcome the greatest of odds, inspiring as in Scene 2, Act 4 an unsure Israel to echo their own re-found faith in twirling harmonies that surround his deeply voiced surety.

As Nabucco’s daughter Fenena, Clauda Chapa’s mezzo-soprano voice beautifully resonates an inner strength, courage, and resolve that will continue to grow in the course of the story.  Fenena declares boldly her new faith and her love for a man who is called enemy by her own father.  She will particularly shine when Fenena believes she is about to die at the hands of her diabolical sister, with Ms. Chapa bringing radiant clarity in notes round and full as she sings with full conviction, “My soul escapes already and flies to heaven.”

As Fenena’s lover and her defender even in the face of his own people’s wrath, John Kun Park’s Ismaele sings with a tenor voice that floats its high notes with ease and emotional fervor.  His voice intertwines in love and reverence with Fenena’s equally adoring tones as they recall how they first fell in love.  A highlight of the entire evening is when the two of them join near the end of Act One with the jealous Abigaile in a trio that is the one time Verdi gives us a heart-pounding glimpse of the depths of emotions welling within each in this triangle of love.

When she enters Jerusalem disguised as a soldier, Abigaile immediately sends chills down one’s spine as she uplifts a fearful voice to sing, “The thunderbolt of my revenge already hangs suspended over your heads.”  Christina Major is nothing short of astounding in this extremely demanding soprano role – one in which she meteorically goes in a mere split second from a frightful-sounding low to a heaven-touching high, with a voice overflowing with Abigaile’s felt destiny to rule.  At times, notes fall in caressing waterfall fashion down a scale that seems to be octaves in length. 

Her Act Two aria begins with rolling torrents of sustained notes as she declares, “You will see my fury fall upon everyone.”  Her cries of purposeful revenge pierce the air in their soprano heights before suddenly collapsing to a depth most sopranos rarely travel.  But when she reflects of how she once spoke of “holy love” and “wept at others’ tears” – remembering her unfulfilled affection for Ismaele – Ms. Major transforms her vocals to a soft trembling as she holds note after note long enough for each to attach to the next in a loving embrace.  It is no wonder that at the end of this aria, Christina Major receives on opening night the loudest ‘bravas’ and the longest applause. 

If there were any other of her many brilliant moments that perhaps one-upped this extraordinary aria, it is as her Abigaile stumbles and falls near the opera’s end to a self-inflicted death of poison.  Singing crumpled on the ground with a lovely English horn accompaniment (Meave Cox), she sends a whispered prayer to God of “Let me not be damned.”  Clearly, if for no other reason, Christina Major’s performance of Abigaile is a sure reason (among many) to secure a ticket to WBO’s Nabucco.

Normally, a review of Nabucco would focus on the lead character himself, whose developmental and spiritual journey is in many ways Verdi’s raison d’être for the opera.  Unfortunately, the baritone who will star in this role the rest of the run, Jason Duika, was unavailable opening night due to an allergy attack.  With only one day’s notice, Roy Stevens stepped into the role; and he deserves not only the voiced appreciation Artistic Director José Luis Moscovich gave him at the evening’s close, but also the admiration of all of us who attended.  It was clear, however, from his opening notes and appearance that the accomplished performer was under some strain and insecurity, undertaking the last-minute stand-in.  To his well-deserved credit, his confidence and the projection of his baritone vocals progressively grew stronger over the course of the evening, with his Act Four, Scene One prayer of forgiveness to the Hebrew God touching our hearts as well as surely the Almighty’s.  When he then declares to all Israel his love of God and his intention to rebuild the destroyed Temple, his Nabucco triumphs in a final, reverberating magnificence that leads into one of the chorus’ most exultant moments as they sing in full, a cappella harmony, “Great Jehovah.”

Layna Chianakas directs with great skill the comings and goings of such a large cast (forty-plus) on a relatively compact stage, one built with various levels of steps and platforms along with a great, stone wall of Babylon protruding from stage right as part of JF Revon’s set design.  Projections by JF Revon and Frédéric O. Boulay are mixed in their success in portraying the ancient Temple, Babylonia, and natural surroundings (with a projected sandstorm of sorts becoming a distraction in the build-up to Nabucco’s first appearance in Jerusalem).  Much more wowing are the array of Israelite and Babylonian costumes created by perennially award-winning costume designer Abra Berman, with her royal designs for Abigaile being particularly impressive. 

Steve Mannshardt brings his normal genius to a lighting design that often trembles and dances in its shadow play over the steps of Temple, river shores, and a city’s famed hanging gardens.  Giselle Lee’s sound design assures proper balance among the wide assemblage of singers with the multi-level orchestra (located in the pit and on two levels of the stage’s both sides).  José Luis Moscovich conducts the twenty-five-plus orchestra with both exuberance and sensitivity, with the strings and winds especially time and again playing in manners guaranteed to impress and inspire.

To be able to enjoy an opera of as grand a scale as Nabucco by a company as accomplished as West Bay Opera in a setting as intimate as Lucie Stern Theatre is indeed a blessing for Silicon Valley.  Whether a regular attendee of operas on stages much larger and in halls much grander or a first-timer to opera altogether, one cannot go wrong securing a ticket to West Bay Opera’s wonderfully executed, beautifully resounding Nabucco – especially when given the gift of reveling in a Abigaile that surely rivals any that has ever played the role.

Rating: 4.5 E

Nabucco continues October 20, 26 and 27, 2019 in production by West Bay Opera at the Lucie Stern Theatre, 1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto.  Tickets are available online at www.wbopera.org, by calling the box office at 650- 424-9999, or by stopping by the West Bay Opera box office, 221 Lambert Avenue, Palo Alto.

https://theatreeddys.blogspot.com/2019/10/nabucco.html?m=1&fbclid=IwAR1OjmqkRO4w3Oaz7q6XXju-D-Xks7G6K2yIUNdIFETS5b1MUjbMbuLYKtE

By Henry Etzkowitz and Chunyan Zhou

Lucie Stern Theatre, Palo Alto’s Community performance venue hosted a world class offering of Giuseppe Verdi’s interpretation of the biblical books of Jeremiah and Daniel, the agonistic struggle between Israelites and Assyrians, the sacking of the Temple of Solomon, the Jews exile and eventual return to Jerusalem. Jose Luis Moscovich, conductor and general director of West Bay Opera introduced the West Bays first performance of Nabucco, originally presented by Milan’s La Scala in 1842,  this past Friday with a telling reference to contemporary Middle East struggles. Certainly, the Kurd/Turkish conflict has tragic operative potential but it is certainly not yet clear what will be the resolution, political or dramatic. 

Nabucco, opens with a powerful overture portending great events. West Bay’s Orchestral power is enhanced by tiers of brass located on the side of the stage, facing the audience, supplementing the diminutive Palo Alto pit. The Jewish protagonists appear on stage wringing their hands in despair calling upon their G-D for an improbable rescue from Assyrian legions bent on their capture and the Temple’s destruction.  The Jews are in their usual bind waiting for a higher authority to save them from being caught in the claws of a greater power. But this is opera, where a personal element, the love of an Assyrian princess for an imprisoned Judean Ambassador, is inserted to set in motion a plot, with two women competing for the affections of the Hebrew, a mad Lear-like ruler struggling to regain his authority. Thus, does the political become personal in Verdi’s interpretation of Assyrian-Jewish relations, overlaid by internal complications within each community.

Nabucco tells the story of the ancient king of Babylon who slandered the G-d of Israel but he finally repented. The religious taste of the story is strong, and similar stories have been told countless times, including the story of King David in the Bible. The stage design of this opera uses modern techniques: combining the large screen behind it with the props in front of the stage to add dynamic and realism. 

Roy Steven’s baritone is a good example of a king’s superiority and pride, as well as pampered living, including the dramatic Baryton-noble baritone. Christina Major with her beautiful soprano has a very strong and majestic voice. Her voice has a far reach, just right for an ambitious lady in the Palace. She could play a villainess, or a motherly character. However, in this performance Fenena’ mezzo-soprano (by Claudia Chapa) is just right for an unfortunate daughter. Ben Brady as Zaccaria is a performance worthy of praise as a religiously rich work. His male voice is bright and honest, and he brings a lot of solemnity and admiration to G-d in this performance, such that one feels the power of faith.

Community Opera is alive and well in Silicon Valley, a venue with a vibrant if under-acknowledged performance scene. The depth of the local talent was great enough to supply a stellar last-minute replacement for Nabucco. Ray Stevens, an internationally experienced San Jose State trained baritone, stepped in with only a day’s notice to carry off the role as if he had been designated from the outset.  Kudos to Stevens and West Bay for achieving a seamless transition. The replacement was no doubt assisted by the relatively static nature of Nabucco’s staging, mostly delivered by protagonists and ensemble directly facing the audience and singing their all. On the other hand, a looser staging might not have so effectively captured the inescapable binds of conflict. The four walls of the proscenium, three visible and one invisible, heightened the emotional effect of a powerful performance that threatened but did not break theatrical convention. West Bay Opera’s Nabucco is grand opera apotheosis put over by a relatively small troupe, exemplifying how less can be more in the collective imagination of  stagers and audience, if and when they so will it. No-one in the mid-Peninsula is entitled to complain that they have to endure traffic to San Francisco or San Jose to see a “decent” opera when the West Bay Opera is celebrating its sixty-fourth season in the neighborhood around us!

https://chicago.splashmags.com/index.php/2019/10/23/nabucco-review-west-bay-opera-impeccably-sings-verdi/#gsc.tab=0

After the abject failure of his second opera Un Giorno di Regno, Giuseppe Verdi vowed never to compose again and prevailed upon his publisher Bartolomeo Merelli to cancel his obligation to deliver two more operas. While Merelli possessed more confidence in Verdi than the composer did himself, he capitulated to the request but kept pressing Verdi to read a particular libretto about the Babylonian conquest of Judea and the enslavement of Jews. That manuscript by Temistocle Solera was Nabucco, which became an 1842 opera that would set performance records for its era and establish Verdi as an acclaimed composer.

Nabucco evidences the Verdi sound and style associated with the masterpieces of his rich middle period. The music is melodious throughout, with demanding arias and complex ensembles, though none are among his more memorable. However, the overture, which includes many of the opera’s themes, captivates and is often performed on its own in concert halls. What particularly distinguishes this opera is the prevalence of the chorus, both in time on stage and contribution to the storyline. Indeed, most Americans would think that Verdi’s most significant musical passages would be arias from his greatest masterpieces. But to Italians, his most important single musical number is the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves “Va pensiero” from this opera. With most of Italy under the Austrian yoke at the time of its premiere, Italians immediately identified with the victims. The melody emanates beauty and emotion, but benefits from its simplicity and singability. It became an anthem in the Risorgimento, the unification of Italy in the mid-nineteenth century, and has recurred as a touchstone of patriotism to the present day.

Although the framework of the story derives from the Bible, only the title character, who English speakers know as Nebuchadnezzar, is from that source, and even he is really a composite of Babylonian rulers. Both the overall plot and the characters are compelling, though narrative suffers gaps and lack of clarity that can confuse without prior knowledge. Threads are woven together concerning various aspects of power and love. Nabucco conquers Judea, but then suffers a period of madness and incapacity. His daughter Fenena has fallen in love with Judean Ishmaele, and she is being held hostage. Meanwhile, her presumptive older sister Abigaille (go see the opera for the revelation) seizes the throne, and further conflict of major proportions ensues.

The musical composition results in interesting tessitura and casting. Nabucco is written as a baritone, and Zaccaria, the High Priest of the Jews, nominally as a bass, meaning a tenor occupies only the third male lead role, an anomoly. On the distaff side, the role of Abigaille demands a highly dramatic coloratura with great power, range, fluidity, and ability to leap huge musical distances in a single bound – a hard bill to fill.

In casting Jason Duika in the title role, he and the company are snakebit once again. In the company’s I Due Foscari, an allergy attack left him at half voice, but he courageously performed so the show could go on. This time, one day before opening, the attack was so bad that it was clear he could not perform. Disaster! This role isn’t Figaro or Pinkerton, where there would be many ways to turn to find a stand in. Miracle! Roy Stevens, established bass-baritone who is currently Artistic Director of Opera Modesto, has played the role and was able to step in at the last minute. What gutsiness! His opening vocals did not bode well for the evening, but he strengthened quickly and gave an admirable performance with no perceivable missteps thenceforth, not only in voice, but in adjusting to the staging and other elements. Thank you, Mr. Stevens!

The most remarkable voice in the production is Christina Major as Abigaille, who in a sense is the real lead character. She totally fulfills the needs previously mentioned for the role. When at full bore her voice cuts steel, yet she can gently embrace tender moments and transition between the two with great facility. She is a vocal knockout. Baritone Benjamin Brady shows his heavyweight vocal credentials as Zaccaria. Exhibiting a particularly powerful and well-rounded midrange, his authoritativeness belies his youth. Mezzo Clauda Chapa as Fenena delivers volume without compromising the warm, smooth character of her voice. Tenor John Kun Park as Ismaele capably rounds out the lead cast.

General Director and Conductor José Luis Moscovich reveals his pluck in this undertaking with its challenging casting and heavy reliance on the chorus. But the company attracted a chorus of 30, which produces substantial sound and quality when whole.  The women’s side holds up well when singing alone, but the men lack a strong bottom and sound thin.

West Bay’s recent, typical stage appearance is very much in play, with versatile stone-looking exterior surfaces, wide steps, and backlit projections to differentiate venues. Kudos to Abra Berman for costume design responsibilities for the large cast.

Nabucco, composed by Giuseppe Verdi with libretto by Temistocle Solera is produced by West Bay Opera and plays at Lucie Stern Theatre, 1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto, CA through October 27, 2019.

http://forallevents.info/reviews/nabucco/?fbclid=IwAR0bNSCxJ-fqRzNJdXqcP3e6rnBp-xX9Cspw4pvufdENgUiII4gFoj4BusY