Switzerland Donizetti, Roberto Devereux: Soloists, Chorus of Zurich Opera, Philharmonia Zurich / Enrique Mazzola (conductor). Zurich Opera, 4.2.2023. (MF)
Production:
Director – David Alden
Set and Costumes – Gideon Davey
Lighting – Elfried Roller
Assistant choreographer – Arturo Gama
Chorus grasp – Janko Kastelic
Dramaturgy – Kathrin Brunner
Cast:
Elizabeth I – Inga Kalna
Duke of Nottingham – Konstantin Shushakov
Sara, Duchess of Nottingham – Anna Goryachova
Robert Devereux – Stephen Costello
Lord Cecil – Andrew Owens
Sir Walter Raleigh – Brent Michael Smith
Page – Aksel Daveyan
Nottingham’s confidant – Gregory Feldmann
Executioner – Francesco Guglielmino
The night kicks off with a veritable coup de théâtre. Bang on the primary upbeat, the highlight is on the freshly beheaded Anne Boleyn with the very younger Elizabeth trying on, a toddler alone on the wide-open stage. During the overture director David Alden illustrates the hardships of the longer term Queen Elizabeth I’s early years – a troublesome life as a ‘spare’ to her half-sister Mary Tudor – culminating in her virtually grotesque posturing as topped ruler in full regalia.
The actual Elizabeth I reigned for 45 years, turning into identified for her wit and notorious for her mood. She mastered the artwork of perfecting her picture because the ‘Virgin Queen’, married to the English individuals fairly than a person of flesh and blood, which, in actuality, was incompatible with any amorous affairs.
The opera focuses on the tip of the connection between the ageing Queen Elisabetta (Elizabeth) and her younger lover, military commander Roberto (Robert) Devereux. Robert faces a sentence for having disobeyed Elizabeth’s orders. She delays the decision out of affection for him. Upon studying of Robert’s amorous betrayal – a passionate relationship with Sara, Duchess of Nottingham and spouse of Robert’s greatest good friend – Elizabeth indicators his loss of life sentence, solely to remorse it instantly. She renounces the throne and, at the least metaphorically, life – ‘non regno, non vivo’. The Crown goes to James VI of Scotland (son of Mary Queen of Scots).
Donizetti composed this tragedia lirica at a time when his life had hit all-time low. Having misplaced within the house of a 12 months his mother and father, his two kids and his spouse, he mustered the vitality to create his 57th opera. Roberto Devereux premiered in Naples in 1837 on the Teatro San Carlo. Like the plot, the rating is bursting with drama. Its punch and emotional urgency had an audible affect on Giuseppe Verdi. Roberto Devereux is, with Anna Bolena and Maria Stuarda, the third opera in what’s in the present day known as the ‘Tudor Trilogy’, though not deliberate as such by Donizetti. In conductor Enrique Mazzola’s phrases, they type the ‘Donizetti Ring’.
David Alder has now staged the trilogy in Zurich, this Devereux was preceded by Maria Stuarda in 2018 and Anna Bolena 2021. The three are held collectively by an enormous empty marble room as a scenic parenthesis. In Roberto Devereux, the motion is structured by a round wall separating open from closed and personal from public areas. It additionally supplies Elizabeth with a generously sized background for her Instagram-worthy obsession with self-portraits; her effigy even hangs within the Nottinghams’ bed room. The set’s horror vacui-inducing peak retains reminding us that people are usually not the measure of all issues, in any case. The staging’s simplicity is each contrasted and echoed by Gideon Davey’s costumes. Whereas the 4 essential characters are clad in elaborate interval gown, the refrain representing the individuals wears impartial, late-nineteenth century black and white costumes.
The piece is known as after the tenor however the principle character is certainly Elizabeth. Latvian soprano Inga Kalna offers her function debut within the a part of this queen on the finish of her life. Kalna’s versatile voice and uncooked appearing tumble in an emotional polygon of assertive willpower, majestic grandiosity (three cheers for that frilled lizard-collar gown), tender love and forlorn deprivation. We genuinely do take care of her. Stephen Costello holds up effectively as Roberto. His multi-faceted voice is at its most touching when he’s incarcerated after the loss of life sentence, despairing in entrance of the lowered security curtain doubling as jail wall. Costello can also be transferring within the previous duet with Anna Goryachova as Sara. Goryachova was known as upon shortly earlier than the premiere to fill in and discovered the half in simply 4 days, wowing the viewers with a poignant efficiency.
Enrique Mazzola directs the Philharmonia Zurich emphatically. If it weren’t too prosaic a metaphor, one may say that the orchestra follows the conductor as if he have been working a water-tap, on this occasion meting out an enthusing multi-layered, vibrant and dynamic musical move. Mazzola is aware of his Donizetti inside and outside, keenly exploring the best way this nineteenth-century maestro broke the foundations of conventional bel canto. The public was enraptured, thanking the solid with a standing ovation.
Further performances are on 12, 17, 22, 26 February, 4, 7 and 17 March.
Michael Fischer