CityLife Rating
Lucrezia Borgia
RUFUS WAINWRIGHT fans – if you want to know what opera is actually about, get out to Buxton and give this a try.
It’s the real, early-19th century, blood-and-guts McCoy, and the singing is superb.
The Buxton Festival’s flagship staging this year comes with a cast of top talent, led by Mary Plazas as wicked-but-tragic Lucrezia, John Bellemer as heroic tenor Gennaro (he turns out to be her long-lost son, but she only finds out once he’s been poisoned), and David Soar as her husband, the nasty Duke Alfonso.
There is no weak link, with the ‘trouser’ role of Orsini (Gennaro’s mate) powerfully acted and sung by Miroslava Yordanova, Jonathan Best in his coldly cynical mien as hitman Gubetta, and Colin Judson as Rustighello, the leader of the Duke’s thugs.
Gaetano Donizetti's opera has been brought up to date in a lurid Cosa Nostra setting, as you can imagine it might be – but that fits the story perfectly, and Stephen Medcalf (with straightforward, effective design by Francis O’Connor) directs with a sure touch, as he did in Roberto Devereaux two years ago.
The emphasis is rightly on the singing, and I emphasise its quality because the festival has surely done even better than before in its casting this year, and its artistic director (and this production’s conductor) Andrew Greenwood is to be congratulated on that, as well as on the thrilling pacing and spine-tingling climaxes he creates, with the Northern Chamber Orchestra his essential partners in the pit.
Historians
The male chorus is particularly fine. Historians may remember that when Charles Halle conducted this opera in Manchester in 1854 the chorus men who had small solo roles demanded extra cash for their efforts, which he had to supply out of his own pocket because of a flint-faced management... I hope the same does not happen in Buxton, but those brief soloists certainly deserve credit.
And Donald Maxwell’s cameo role as Astolfo, a hood caught out among hoods, was a delight. In fact, that scene of naked mafioso thuggishness was one of the highlights of the night. Another was the testosterone-driven duet by Gennaro and Orsini in act two.
Truth to tell, the highlights came thick and fast. Lucrezia’s opening aria (Com’e bello!) – Gennaro and Lucrezia’s first duet – Rustighello’s act one monologue – Lucrezia and Alfonso’s great confrontation over Gennaro – the brindisi of Orsini, interrupted by Don Giovanni-like offstage choral imprecations.
And Lucrezia’s final, virtuosic solo revealed Mary Plazas at her impassioned, roof-raising best.
This opera was a favourite in Manchester in Victorian times. It came round in touring versions again and again.
Our forebears clearly had a liking for high drama and superb singing, and if something like Buxton’s version were available here today, in a properly refurbished Theatre Royal, it would probably do more for operatic fortunes in the city than any big commercial names or millions in council subsidy.
Reviewed: Wed, 15 July, 2009
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