In the 1970's Beverly Sills made history at the City Opera by performing in all three of Donizetti's "Tudor Queens" operas in a single season. This year Sondra Radvanovsky is attempting to duplicate Sills's feat, this time at the Met, beginning with Anna Bolena which I saw on Saturday afternoon as part of my subscription series. Later in the season I'll be seeing Radvanovsky as Elizabeth I in Roberto Devereux.
In spite of Donizetti's overwhelming success with such signal works as L'elisir d'amore and Lucia di Lammermoor, none of the three Tudor operas has ever managed to win wide acclaim. They were rarely performed during the twentieth century and it's only in the last few decades that they have begun to reappear as part of the standard repertory. The first production at the Met of Anna Bolena, the same seen on Saturday, was staged only in 2011. Part of this may have had something to do with how prolific a composer Donizetti was. During his short lifetime he composed some 70 operas and it was perhaps inevitable that some should have fallen to the side. Another factor may have been the scarcity of qualified bel canto singers. This same circumstance kept a number of Bellini's operas from being as frequently performed as they deserved. Beyond this, though, the opera has long had a reputation for being slow moving. Rudolf Bing once referred to it as “an old bore.” This is not really fair. While it may be true that nothing very much happens in the first scene of Act I, for example, it is on the other hand filled with some of Donizetti's most beautiful music and arias.
Certainly Anna had an auspicious enough beginning. With a libretto by Felice Romani, who later collaborated with Donizetti on L'elisir, and the legendary Giuditta Pasta in the title role the opera was a stunning success at its 1830 premiere in Milan. In the next two decades there were a number of performances throughout Europe and the U.S. Then it was pretty much consigned to oblivion until Maria Callas took over the role at La Scala in a production designed by Luchino Visconti. All this history made me extremely curious to see the opera for myself and to form my own opinion.
If nothing else, the performance was a triumph for Radvanovsky whose voice soared in the bel canto arias as beautifully as it had several seasons ago when I saw her perform in Norma. Beyond that, I found the opera itself fascinating and a solid work of art that well deserves a place in the repertory of any major opera company. Anna's mad scene at the end of Act II was in some ways even more skillfully done than that which Donizetti fashioned for Lucia di Lammermoor. Even though this was a relatively long work (over 3 1/2 hours with only one intermission), the drama was so absorbing that time passed quickly.
Radvanovsky had a great deal of assistance from a strong cast in making this performance so huge a success. The critical role of Giovanna Seymour was taken at the last minute by Milijana Nikolic filling in for Jamie Barton who was ill. Ironically, Barton herself was a replacement for Elina Garanca who withdrew upon the death of her mother before the run had even begun. Nikolic may not be an exceptional talent but she was more than adequate here, especially in the dramatic confrontation with Anna that opens Act II and culminates in the duet Sul suo capo aggravi un Dio.
Credit should also be given to Stephen Costello as Percy, Ildar Abdrazakov as Henry VIII and Tamara Mumford in the "pants role" of Smeaton. Marco Armiliato's conducting was workmanlike and showed a good understanding of the Donizetti's music.
David McVicar's production was handsome in an understated way. The use of bright red color for the Queen's canopied bed at the beginning of Act II in an otherwise monochromatic set was a nice visual touch that suggested Anna's bloody end without being too obvious about it. In case the audience failed to appreciate the allusion, the curtain that fell at the end of the act was the same vivid shade of crimson.
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