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José Cura opens in Prague a Nabucco that is very
psychological and faithful to the original
La Vanguardia
Gustavo Monge
27 June 2018
Prague, June 27 (EFE) .- The Argentinean tenor and director
José Cura opens a new version of Giuseppe Verdi's
Nabucco tomorrow in Prague, highlighting the
psychological drama of the protagonist, Abigaille, the adopted
daughter of King Nebuchadnezzar.
"Abigaille's
drama goes through something that in psychology is classified
as an inferiority complex, a woman with a huge complex,
because she felt that something in her genealogy did not
fit in. Where is my mother? Why do not I look like dad?
Until she discovers the letter that says she is adopted, "
Cura explained to EFE.
The lyrical drama in four parts is inspired by the Old Testament
when the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar (played by the
Czech baritone Martin Bárta), conquered Jerusalem in 586
BC.
Meanwhile, his daughter Fenena, who is in love with Ismaele,
a nephew of the king, tries to free the enslaved Hebrew
people, confronting her sister Abigaille.
The artist from Rosario, who also holds Spanish nationality,
has created this new assembly of Verdi's opera commissioned
by the Prague State Opera.
After a year and a half of preparations, the opera will
premiere tomorrow, Thursday, at the Karlin Music Theater,
as the Opera House is under construction.
Cura assures us that the protagonist of the story "transforms
that complex into aggression, into mistreatment towards
the other, and is in a constant state of war."
In this montage, the Romanian Anda-Louise Bogza and the
Croatian Kristina Kolar will be distributed throughout the
various roles of the leading role, considered one of the
most difficult to execute for a soprano.
"The
aggression of her song is not a fight for the decibel, but
a way to transmit her enormous psychological trauma,"
says Cura.
Abigaille is not a "Valkyrie in a stylistic sense,
it is always coloratura, it is always on the border between
the bel canto in which Verdi had grown and the beginning
of melodrama," he adds.
Therefore, says Cura, Abigaille should not be "a screaming
singer, but use music to convey many different colors,"
something that, he admits, goes against the popular folklore
that likes the characters "sing almost by the kilo,
loud and noisy.”
According to Cura, Nabucco is an "iconographic
opera," created by a Verdi still young and in which
there is much more orchestral work than in later operas
in which the composer "approached more and more to
a sung symphonism, as in Otello."
A work, in the opinion of the 55 year old artist is "fundamental
in the history of melodrama, if not the most important,
and not for itself, but for the fact that Nabucco
was a success, and took Verdi out of very dangerous psychological
ostracism."
After failures with previous works and the drama of losing
his wife and two children, the success of this opera launched
him to move forward with his career.
"Nabucco
was the kickoff to the development of melodrama, which culminates
with Otello and Faust,"
says the tenor.
For the staging in Prague, Cura has opted for a fidelity
that goes through an "almost unhealthy respect of the
libretto."
As for the staging, for which he has had his usual collaborator
Silvia Collazuol, Cura says that "it is very pure,
only lines, light, colors" based on the theory of Vasili
Kandinski on the influence of color in the human soul.
That influence of the Russian painter, the precursor of
abstraction, is shown in geometric shapes and colors "according
to the psychology of each character," Cura adds.
The artist does not seek social or political connotations
for the work, whose premiere in 1842 took place in a context
of growing nationalism linked to the creation of the Italian
State.
"I
like to be very neutral in my proposal and allow the audience
to draw its own conclusions. I do not like to use
the theatrical means or taxpayers' taxes to satisfy
my mental delusions, because it is a lack of respect,"
he says.
Prague has 17 performances of this Nabucco scheduled until
June 2019 and Cura says he would like to represent it at
the State Opera, once the conditioning works are ready.
EFE
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