Night at the Opera: Nabucco

It's that time again:  Opera season!

This year, the Minnesota Opera came out the gate with the lushly visualized Nabucco. As soon as the curtains went up, I regretted not bringing my markers or a digital drawing pad, because MY GOD THE COLORS. The set designers actually hand painted every one of the amazing backdrops used in this production, using paint and pigment mixing techniques we might have seen back when this opera first appeared on stage. Of course, all those bright colors were supposed to offset the poor gas lighting back then, so with modern lighting those colors really POPPED. Not that anyone was complaining. The effect was stunningly beautiful, like watching a moving oil painting.

I made an attempt at capturing one of the first backdrops, which was full of huge columns and intricately designed tilework, but I'm not sure if it works in black ink. You can see on the left, there were little audience boxes built right onto the stage, for the fictional audience. It was all very meta, sort of like watching a show within a show. The false audience was there to provide some historical context for the references to the Austrian occupation of Italy. It was all very subversive.

The costumes were incredible as well, utilizing stark whites and even more rich colors, especially for the characters of Nabucco and his daughters. I loved the contrast between the "audience" costumes (Austrian soldiers and Italian upper class of the time) and the "cast" costumes. While the "audience" costumes were relatively muted in color, the "cast" had a much brighter palette. Even the whites were more eye-popping. 

My favorite "audience" guy was actually part of the "stage crew", a lamp lighter who had to come out at the start of every scene and re-light the gas lamps. Too adorable.

Here's a sketch of some of the costumes:

The title of this opera may have been Nabucco, but to me it seemed the main characters were really his two daughters, Abigaille and Fenena, who were respectively the antagonist and protagonist of the story. Nabucco did have the best hat, though, and his character arc was well executed.

Abigaille kind of stole the show. She was an excellent antagonist, yet very sympathetic, especially by the end of the show. Her jealousy of her sister, Fenena, and her bitterness toward her father needed no translation. She was easily my favorite of all the singers, too.

Of course, when Abigaille takes the crown from her illness-stricken father, she becomes the best character WITH the best hat. A double threat!

I don't want to spoil the entire story for you-- to be honest, until my friend Lisa explained it to me, I wasn't actually following the plot at all, because I was too busy drooling over the pretty sets and costumes and feverishly trying to sketch them-- so I'll end it here by saying this:



DO go see this show. DO get season tickets for the Minnesota Opera this year. It is going to be one heck of an awesome season.




Helpful Links:

 http://www.mnopera.org/  <-- Minnesota Opera official website