Power surge: Nabucco's Abigaille may be a notorious voice-wrecker, but Susan Neves has tamed it and made it her own.(Interview)

Susan Neves has sung Abigaille in Berlin, Paris, Vienna, Genoa, Montreal, Munich, Santiago, Parma and New York, and her most recent triumph in the role, at last July's Choregies d'Orange, only confirmed her true dramatic-soprano qualities, coupled with clean coloratura and a grand dramatic presence. Her voice rang out into the Roman arena with total security and majestic ease, earning her a warm, well-deserved ovation from the 10,000-strong public. The following morning, OPERA NEWS caught up with the American soprano.

OPERA NEWS: The role of Abigaille in Nabucco is infamously taxing, yet you have made it your international calling card. How did that come about?

SUSAN NEVES: It came about kind of oddly. I was covering Norma at the Bastille, and at one performance, after "Casta Diva," while I was playing cards with Franco Farina, Carol Vaness decided she couldn't finish the show, and I went on. This left a very nice taste in the mouth about the Bastille. A few months later, my agent called and said, "You're going to Paris tomorrow to cover Nabucca."

"Cover Nabucco?! I've never heard Nabucco."

"Well, learn it. You're going tomorrow. Don't worry--it will be like Norma. You probably won't have to sing."

"Well, I had to sing a performance of Norma, and I already knew it."

I learned Abigaille on the plane, and I arrived to find out that [Maria] Guleghina was only arriving for the dress rehearsal--so all the rehearsal period is me. So I had to learn it intensely, but really well, right from the beginning, with coaches from the Bastille and Maestro Benini. When Guleghina got there, she had a couple of differences with the stage director, Robert Carsen, and I ended up getting a few of the performances, and after over a hundred performances it's still my favorite production. From then on, I sang Nabucco at the Bastille, and I began to sing it all around.