Arrigo Boito's forgotten opera “Nero” would definitely be a case for the stage - provided it is staged differently than at the Bregenz Festival.
The master himself guessed it. Giuseppe Verdi waved his hand at the Roman Zündel emperor, as he had done before with “Lear”: What turned into a multi-layered, modern-looking musical drama with “Otello”, with the help of the ingenious lyricist Arrigo Boito, seemed to him with “Nero” far to stage maturity. Boito himself then tackled the composition, tinkering and screwing for 56 years until his death. Four out of five acts were almost finished, Arturo Toscanini took care of the rest of the instrumentation for the Scala premiere in 1924. So the last musician unction for a failed project?
Traditionally, the Bregenz Festival takes care of forgotten treasures in the Festspielhaus, which they finance with their open-air spectacle (this year again Verdi's “Rigoletto”).
And they come up with another very debatable piece of evidence: Boito's “Nero” evades the forms and schemes of the 19th century, is a hinge that elevates structural openness and sonic experimentation to a principle.
But it could work - provided you stay close and don't push things three or four turns, as director Olivier Tambosi did.
Decline of the Roman gods
The offer is too seductive. Boito does not simply focus on an insane monarch. He creates the psychogram of a divided man who experiences the decline of the ancient Roman deities in favor of Christianity, feasts on it as on the blood of his opponents. Who sees himself as an artist and cruelty as an aesthetic aspect. And compared to the magician Simon, a man who really embodies the dark side of power. A puller who uses the turmoil of religious currents and in the Kaiserkopf for his own ambitions. A revenant of Jagos, this figure that Verdi / Boito achieved almost most impressively in their “Otello”.
Tambosi and set designer Frank Philipp Schlössmann are not seduced by the crowd scenes, the cruel games in the Circus Maximus. These moments are banished to the off, remain the imagination of a despot and roar from the ditch with a distant choir. Many other things are also said to be the result of Nero's synapses short-circuits on this three-hour evening: The ruler appears multiplied, staged as Christ or in the small green with high heels, is savior, martyr and onlooker at the same time.
At some point, like the diligently operated revolving stage with its psychological spaces, the performance circles around itself, gets lost in the pitfalls of its concept, and does not find its way out of the confusion of associations between the religious and the 1920s.
And the fact that a lot of things look like this, from the black angel to the messiahs with a crown of thorns to the ghosts of the 1920s, as if it had escaped Stefan Herheim's Bayreuth “Parsifal”, is almost a case for the plagiarism police.
Trick: The same costume designer, Gesine Völlm, is at work here.
Impressive craftsmanship from conductor Dirk Kaftan
What remains is the musical experience. Conductor Dirk Kaftan creates the porous score on which the centrifugal forces are tugging with impressive craftsmanship. There is an abundance of energy, clarity, and tempo, but drinkability (which Boito also intended) and room for melodies are less abundant. Kaftan looks at “Nero” with the much sought-after Vienna Symphony Orchestra from the 20th century and sees it as a prelude to what will come later.
In the vocal parts, Boito ties in with Verdi's “Otello”.
The insane emperor needs a flexible large tenor caliber.
Rafael Rojas can do most of this, but is careful not to cross borders - and as a gray-voiced, never-too-ostentatious Simon disgust, Verdi veteran Lucio Gallo has to give way.
Especially in the women's games you can hear how difficult it is to cast “Nero”.
As Asteria, in love with Nero, soprano Svetlana Aksenova reaches her limits with her bitter soprano.
Mezzo-soprano Alessandra Volpe as Rubria, who is torn between Christianity and Roman folk beliefs, on the other hand, also makes the figure's multifacetedness audible.
Somewhat inconclusive applause, cheers for Dirk Kaftan.
Honor rescues may look different, but they largely sound that way.
Further performances
on July 25th and August 2nd.
