Orange.(International)(Nabucco)(Opera Review)

A few drops of rain just before curtain time delayed the opening night of the Choregies d'Orange on July 10 by a quarter of an hour. A few minutes later and the shower would have seriously interrupted Act I of Verdi's Nabucco, but the gods were smiling on the Roman theater after the sour atmosphere of last year's strike-threatened festival, and the performance took place without interruption. Producer Charles Roubaud intelligently used the architectural splendor of the Roman wall to represent Babylon, with hieroglyphics projected onto the ancient stones to transport the audience from Provence to the Middle East, helped by exemplary costumes from Katia Duflot. Otherwise this coproduction with the Opera de Monte-Carlo contented itself with conventional arena-style traffic control of both chorus and soloists. If the production had few imaginative touches, nothing jarred, except when "Va, pensiero" involved a slow and clumsy positioning of the chorus before the music began. The combined opera choruses of Nice, Toulouse and Avignon sang the anthem of patriotic yearning passionately; but the sound was surprisingly slim given the numbers involved.

The Choregies had assembled a fine, largely familiar cast for the festival opening. Lado Ataneli, in the title role, was suffering from an announced indisposition but nonetheless sang with his usual warmth and commitment, creating a fine ...