The place of the people is far below: under the altar, under the stairs that lead into the closed, dark uniform stage set that oppressively frames the four acts of Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Nabucco". In his new Mainz production of Verdi's early hit, which with its "Prisoners' Choir" was sometimes irritatingly reinterpreted as a liberation opera, the young Argentinian director Marcos Darbyshire even abolished the division of the people into Hebrews and Babylonians. When Zaccaria, the high priest, shows weakness in his leadership, the same crowd turns to the adversary, Nabucco, who, in a pristine white suit, smiles like the decal of a modern-day dictator.

These are modern prototypes that the director allows to appear in Verdi's early work from the Old Testament. They make the events in the stage design by Martin Hickmann and the costumes by Annemarie Bulla not superficially topical, but timeless, despite courageous interventions by the director. It was not a lightning bolt from God that brought down Nabucco when he proclaimed himself god, but rather his own daughter Abigaille, who first bloodily wounded her father and then, with painful cuts, disfigured her own face - until she had a new face as a new one, still crueler ruler appears. She, whose descent from a slave woman would actually prevent her from ruling, and her relationship with the royal father form the axis of the new production. The vocal side confirms the focus, because Marta Torbidoni's cutting,unsupported drama does not set itself apart from Brett Carter's smooth Nabucco without drasticness.

Tableau-like second part 

As compelling as Darbyshire develops the relationship between father and daughter, the second part of the opera remains just as tableau-like, in which the people increasingly stretch their arms to the sky and loll their hands. Right from the start, the director has little use for the character of Fenena, Nabucco's younger daughter, and her love for Jerusalem's King Ismaele. The anchoring of the characters in the prototypical also applies to him, he is the long-haired revolutionary who, like all characters in the drama, is ultimately watched when he fails. With his powerfully narrow to exalted tenor, Vincenzo Costanzo lacks any authority of rebellion anyway; at his side is Aya Wakizono as Fenena, lyrically self-contained but ultimately without influence. This ultimately remains denied to Zaccaria,which Simón Orfila gives with a more focused sounding bass-baritone over the course of the evening.

It ultimately falls to a child, a boy playing with his yo-yo, to open Nabucco's eyes to what is happening as Fenena is led to the execution. The child's appearance, which only at first glance looks like a strained directorial idea, is a handy image of the fatherly feelings, which are obviously stronger than the religious awakening that should actually be shown at this point. When at the end Abigaille is transported out of the action on a revolving stage to the roar of the same, inevitable mechanical noise, this is one of the facets of the direction that expands the prototypical to include the all too obvious.

The fact that the Staatstheater Mainz, unlike the neighboring Hessian theaters, can currently play to a full house should account for a part of the success of this premiere that should not be underestimated.

As a collective experience, "Nabucco" is all the more rousing when the score by the young Verdi is played with so much drive, so emphatically and yet precisely, as the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Mainz manages under the direction of its conductor Daniel Montané.

He integrates the choir, excellently rehearsed by Sebastian Hernández-Laverny, so closely and precisely into the events that the enthusiasm of the audience seems to know no bounds.

Nabucco

Next performances on February 2 and March 29 from 7.30 p.m. and on February 6 and March 20 from 6 p.m