Donizetti’s opera Roberto Devereux received it first production at the Met last month. Today’s performance featured the same cast as in the prima. Its librettist, Salvadore Cammarano, also wrote the book for Lucia Di Lammermoor and started that of Verdi’s Il Trovatore, but died before he could complete it. Devereux like Trovatore is an opera of high energy. What separates it from Verdi’s ubiquitous masterpiece is melodic inspiration. This criticism takes little away from Donizetti’s work as no opera has the melodic fecundity of Verdi’s transition from bel canto to something new and more profound. Il Trovatore is the summit of the mountain of which Roberto Devereux is a part.
Roberto Devereux is the third of the so called Three Queens Operas. Actually there are four Tudor era operas, the remaining one is Elisabetta al Castello di Kenilworth which I’ve previously mentioned here. Like the Verdi opera mentioned above, Devereux requires four strong principals, though the soprano part, the aged Queen Elizabeth I, is the reason it stays on the outskirts of the standard repertory. David McVicar’s production uses a unitary set which has “spectators” watching the show. While not terribly distracting it serves no theatrical purpose I can think of. The singers even bowed to the supernumerary observers when they took their curtain calls. This quirk aside, the sets and costumes were period appropriate and served the story and music well.
Devereux is an unbalanced opera. The key action takes place before the curtain rises. Why the title character is accused of treason in Ireland is never explained and he is essentially under a death sentence from the get go. This is similar to the problem which afflicts Anna Bolena. Here to the title character is ready for the ax right from the start. The opera’s energy, while electric, is not sufficiently balanced by moments of emotional repose separate from the almost hysterical propulsion that characterizes most of the first two acts; they were played without a break.
Elina Garanca
Sondra Radvanovsky portrayed all three (of four) Donizetti queens this season at the Met – a unique feat. She said during an intermission interview that Elizabeth was the most demanding and satisfying of the three. Her portrayal of the old monarch was brilliant both vocally and histrionically. Her voice is not lush, but is used to great effect. Radvanovsky was not helped by Gary Halvorson’s dental photography which revealed every facet of the makeup used to make her look old and haggard. Nevertheless, a great impersonation.
Though not the center of the opera, the best singing as well as the best voice was that of Elina Garanca. The Latvian mezzo has a voice of velvet that is even throughout its range. She seem incapable of making anything but a beautiful sound. She is such a great singer that it is worth attending any performance of which she is a part.
Mariusz Kwiecien and Matthew Polenzani
Tenor Matthew Polenzani seem to be a ubiquitous presence at the Met. He has a pleasant lyric tenor which is easily up to the requirements needed by a great house like the Met. Though he played the title character, the focus of the afternoon was clearly on his soprano colleague. She took the last bow at the curtain calls at the opera’s conclusion even though the Met’s usual procedure is for the title character to take the bow just before the conductor is dragged onstage by the soprano. Polenzani’s aria and cabaletta , ‘Come uno spirto angelico… Bagnato il sen di lagrime’, was sensitively sung though the tenor seemed to strain towards its end. This is one of the few lyrical moments in an opera dominated by fury and agitation.
Baritone Mariusz Kwiecien was at the limit of his light baritone in his rendition of the duke seemingly betrayed by both his wife and best friend. I had thought that he might be ready for some of the big Verdi roles, but this performance makes me rethink that proposition. He was fine and offered an insightful interpretation of Nottingham but, as I just indicated, I think he cannot carry more vocal weight than he successfully did in this performance.
Conductor Maurizio Benini led the Met orchestra in a very vigorous reading of a very dynamic score. It’s hard to understand why it took the Met almost 180 years to get around to it. On balance a very successful performance of an opera which show hows great a composer for the theater Donizetti was. The audience was clearly swept away by this powerhouse performance. Worth watching again on the repeat or when the show appears on PBS or on DVD.
Metropolitan Opera House
April 16, 2016 Broadcast
HD Simulcast
Roberto Devereux
Gaetano Donizetti-Salvadore Cammarano/François Ancelot
Elisabetta (Queen Elizabeth)……………..Sondra Radvanovsky
Sara (Sarah)……………………………Elina Garanca
Roberto (Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex)…..Matthew Polenzani
Duke of Nottingham………………………Mariusz Kwiecien
Lord Cecil……………………………..Brian Downen
Gualtiero (Sir Walter Raleigh)……………Christopher Job
A Page…………………………………Yohan Yi
A Servant of Nottingham………………….Paul Corona
Conductor………………………………Maurizio Benini
Production……………………………..David McVicar
Set Designer……………………………David McVicar
Costume Designer………………………..Moritz Junge
Lighting Designer……………………….Paule Constable
Choreographer…………………………..Leah Hausman
TV Director………………………………Gary Halvorson
