Music Review: In ‘Nabucco,’ Maria Guleghina Plays a Diva

What a Met lacks is a larger-than-life excitable corner — a fun, kooky charm; a probability of a astonishing — that drew many fans to a art form in a initial place: spirited view nipping and campy costumes. Camp is about as acquire in Mr. Gelb’s residence as a toll cellphone.

But a glow of wackiness still browns during a Met, waste though bright, in a chairman of Maria Guleghina, a maestro soprano who gnawed on a purpose of Abigaille, a virulent worker incited queen, in a reconstruction of Verdi’s “Nabucco” that non-stop on Tuesday evening.

A story of appetite politics that plays out amid a biblical story of a outcast of a Israelites in Babylon, “Nabucco” (1842) was Verdi’s third show and his initial hit. Stylistically it lies somewhere between a bel canto operas of a early 19th century (like Donizetti’s “Anna Bolena,” from 1830, that non-stop a Met’s deteriorate on Monday) and a richer, denser works of Verdi’s maturity.

Set on an outrageous rotating ziggurat of rough-hewn stone, a Met’s prolongation was originally staged by Elijah Moshinsky in 2001, before a Gelb era. It is somehow calming to see that Abigaille’s garishly shimmering off-the-shoulder dresses have stayed in conform in a production’s ancient Babylon, and that during slightest one thespian stays who relishes a long, palatable theatre with an damning document, inhaling a paper deeply before folding it, ever so slowly, and securing it in her bosom.

Ms. Guleghina plays by old-school diva rules: find a approach to toy any statue onstage and always keep your arms outstretched during climaxes. It is value removing to a Met if usually to see her accumulate an rivalry army’s swords, impetus stoutly to theatre right and accidentally toss them into a wings like so most bathwater.

Her singing was rather beside a point. Abigaille is a notoriously fatiguing role, perfectionist appetite and coherence over a outrageous outspoken and romantic range. Ms. Guleghina was not here for smooth, superb phrasing, and purify embellishment and representation infrequently went by a wayside to save appetite for steely, brutally effective high records and jubilantly stacked low ones.

In a pretension purpose of a agonized, quickly violent Babylonian king, Zeljko Lucic’s baritone had volume though not weight, and moments like Nabucco’s prayer, “Dio di Giuda,” lacked impact. The firmly radiant effort Yonghoon Lee was a fought-over Hebrew infantryman Ismaele, and a mezzo-soprano Renée Tatum sang Nabucco’s daughter, Fenena, with a reedy tone.

As mostly with “Nabucco,” a carol was a low-pitched star, supportive and solid in a good “Va, pensiero,” a Israelites’ acknowledgment for their homeland. Paolo Carignani conducted with some-more movement and rhythmic bearing than Marco Armiliato mustered in “Bolena” on Monday.

But a indicate here was a flawed, fascinating philharmonic of Ms. Guleghina. Opera used to be this merrily eccentric all a time. Take note: Before too prolonged it might be only a pleasant memory.

“Nabucco” runs by Nov. 17 during a Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center; (212) 362-6000, metopera.org.