Gaetano DONIZETTI (1797-1848)
Maria Stuarda (1835)
Laura Polveretti (mezzo) - Elisabetta; Maria Pia Piscitelli (soprano) - Maria
Stuarda; Giovanna Lanza (mezzo) - Anna Kennedy; Roberto De Blasio (tenor) -
Roberto, Conte di Leicester; Simone Alberghini (bass-baritone) - Talbot; Mario
Cassi (baritone) - Cecil; Coro Lirico Marchigiano ’V Bellini’,
FORM Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana/Riccardo Frizza
rec. live, Sferisterio Opera Festival, Macerata, Italy, 3 August 2007
The Italian libretto is available at www.naxos.com/libretti/660261.htm
NAXOS 8.660261-62 [60:41 + 55:55]
The composition of Maria Stuarda was fraught with complications. After
the completion of Lucrezia Borgia in 1833 the librettist Felice Romani
withdrew from further collaborations and Donizetti, who was already contracted
for a production at San Carlo in Naples, more or less in panic engaged the
amateur poet Giuseppe Bardari in Romani’s place. The music was composed
during the summer of 1834 and in September the dress rehearsal took place.
The following day, however, the King of Naples cancelled the performance of
the opera on the grounds that ‘the presentation of operas and ballets
of tragic arguments should always be prohibited’. Donizetti reworked
his opera into Boundelmonte in less than a fortnight, the premiere took
place on 14 October with the action moved from Tudor England to Renaissance
Italy. It was not a success.
Donizetti didn’t want to give in, and after negotiations, carried out
by his publisher Ricordi, Maria Stuarda was mounted at La Scala in December
1835. Again it was not a success at the premiere but was played half a dozen
times each time with a better reception. Then the censors interfered and the
work disappeared, even though it was played in the Italian provinces and also
in Naples in 1865.
It took almost a century before it was unearthed and played at the Teatro Donizetti
in Bergamo in 1958 and also in Stuttgart a few years later. It was not until
the St Pancras Festival in 1966 that it became established and since then it
has been one of the more popular of Donizetti’s operas.
It is based on Schiller’s play but is pared down to more manageable dimensions,
reducing the number of characters from twenty-one to six. The confrontation
between the two queens has no historical reliability; it was Schiller’s
invention.
Musically it is one of Donizetti’s best and points forward to Verdi,
whose first opera was only four years away. Maybe the melodies are not as immediately
memorable as, for instance, those in Lucia, but they are dramatically
efficient and attractive in their own right. The quality of an opera can often
be judged from the number of recordings, and next to Lucia, which is
supreme, Maria Stuarda is among the contenders. Of the studio recordings
one can choose between Beverly Sills, Joan Sutherland and Edita Gruberova in
the title role. There is also a live recording in English from the ENO with
Janet Baker as Maria. The present set boasts no superstars but on the other
hand there is an all-Italian cast, which lends authenticity.
Riccardo Frizza conducts a wholly idiomatic performance with sensible tempos.
He is well assisted by the orchestra. The chorus is also good, though there
are some over-vibrant sopranos that tend to stick out, but not to such a degree
that their presence ruins the enjoyment. They are at their best in the chorus
that opens the final scene of the opera: Vedeste? Vedemmo … Qual truce
apparato (CD 2 tr. 9).
Laura Polverelli is a vibrant Elisabetta, dramatic, powerful and expressive
and her opening aria Ah! Quando all’ara scorgemi and the following
cabaletta Ah! Dal ciel discenda have a certain thrill, though she is
sometimes a bit clumsy. The duet with Leicester, Era d’amor l’immagine that
finishes act I, is one of the best numbers in the opera and it is sung with
feeling and some elegance by both singers. Even better is the third act aria Quella
vita. Roberto De Biasio takes some time to warm up, singing ably but not
in a way that is particularly ingratiating in the first act. In the second
act he is much more sensitive and in act III he is really very good. Maria,
who doesn’t appear until act II, is sung by Maria Pia Piscitelli, who
has a full, rounded voice which is nicely contrasted with Polverelli’s. O
nube! Che lieve (CD 1 tr. 14) is very good but she sweeps the board in
act III with Quando di luce rosea (CD 2 tr. 7). Simone Alberghini is
a rather shaky Talbot, while Mario Cassi is a competent Cecil.
The recorded sound is very good and the balance between stage and pit realistic.
There are inevitably some stage noises and applause. These have not been edited
out but their presence contributes to the feeling of a real performance.
Of the two sets that I own I prefer the one with Beverly Sills (now available
on Brilliant Classics 93963 at super-budget price), a set that also boasts
the absolutely magnificent Eileen Farrell as Elisabetta and a fine Leicester,
sung by Stuart Burrows. Sutherland on Decca is less expressive than Sills,
and Huguette Tourangeau can’t compete in vocal opulence with Farrell.
Pavarotti’s Leicester is brilliantly sung but Burrows is more stylish.
The present set is attractive for the singing of the two prima donnas and the
tenor and is the most idiomatically Italian of them all. At the usual give-away
Naxos price it is well worth the investment.
Göran Forsling
see also review by Robert
Hugill