patrikpen: A duel of Voices in Music and Vision 7 aprile

mercoledì 16 agosto 2017

A duel of Voices in Music and Vision 7 aprile

A Duel of Voices

Donizetti's 'Maria Stuarda' in Rome,
reviewed by GIUSEPPE PENNISI

Maria Stuarda is the most frequently performed opera of Gaetano Donizetti's trilogy about the Tudor queens. However, this is only the fourth production seen at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. The other two operas are Anna Bolena and Roberto Devereux. To be meticulous, the reviewer should include also Elisabetta al Castello di Kenilworth, a semi-serious opera with a happy ending, seldom seen on stage; there is a recording with Katia Ricciarelli in the key-role. It is quite distant from the tragic plots and atmosphere of the other three.

Carmela Remigio as Elisabetta and Marina Rebeka in the title role of 'Maria Stuarda' at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. Photo © 2017 Yasuko Kageyama

In Anders Wiklund's critical edition of the score, Maria Stuarda is a compact opera — about two hours of music, compared with three each of Anna Bolena and Roberto Devereux. It emphasizes the confrontation of the two queens over the young man each of them is longing for rather than the historical power struggle. Indeed, Schiller's play — the basis for Giuseppe Bardari's libretto — takes little notice of the historical facts. Mary was forty-five when she was beheaded (after eight years in jail) and Elisabeth was fifty-three at that time. The Earl of Leicester appears not to have been such a good looking man to cause a bloody fight between the two queens. As mentioned, Wiklund's critical edition emphasizes the sentimental and erotic tensions rather than the political context. These were the key ingredients that pleased the audience until the mid-nineteenth century (when Maria Stuarda disappeared from the repertory). It reappeared around 1990 when the opera was a war horse for singers like Beverly Sills, Levia Gencer, Edita Gruberova, Monserrat Caballé and Joan Sutherland.

The opera has very many interesting numbers. The first act finale — the confrontation between the two queens — which historically never occurred as they never met — is unusual in that the middle section is longer than the larghetto and the final stretta. The concertato at the second act finale, after the eloquent and moving prayer, is magnificent. Donizetti was aware of the value of Maria Stuarda: he borrowed some of the numbers for later operas such as La Favorite and Adelaide.

The Rome production is a collaboration with the San Carlo Theater in Naples, where the stage director (Andrea De Rosa) and his team (Sergio Tramonti for the staging — essentially a single set — and Ursula Patzak for the costumes, in black and white) also staged Schiller's tragedy.

Maria Stuarda is a belcanto opera. Hence, the orchestral score is mostly a support to the singers. The conductor Paolo Arrivabeni is well aware of that and directs the orchestra accordingly. The chorus (led by Roberto Gabbiani) is also a background to the protagonists and is very effective in the second part of the second act.

A scene from 'Maria Stuarda' at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. Photo © 2017 Yasuko Kageyama

The opera is essentially a duel of voices between the two queens; an important feature of this production is that the two singers are sopranos (of slightly different registers) as in the Teatro alla Scala premiere in 1835, rather than a mezzo (Elisabetta) and a soprano (Maria) according to a more recent tradition. A belcanto tenor (Leicester) intervenes in the first act, a baritone (Talbot, a Roman Catholic priest) in the second act.

Carmela Remigio (Elisabetta) must be praised for her skill in managing her voice; I remember her in Aix-en-Province some twenty years ago, when under the direction of Abbado and of Harding she surprised the audience as a young lyric coloratura soprano. She has now a deeper and darker voice but still an astonishing coloratura.