My review of the recording of the London Symphony Orchestra’s semi-staged version of Bernstein’s Candide starring Jane Archibald, Sir Thomas Allen, Leonardo Capalbo and Anne-Sophie von Otter, conducted by Marin Alsop, is now up at Opera Canada. It’s a hybrid CD/SACD release with exceptionally good sound quality.
Catalani’s La Wally is not much performed outside Italy so I was interested to get my hands on a recording made at the Theater an der Wien in 2021. It’s about what one might expect from an Italian opera of the 1890s; an everyday story of country folk plus murder.
The saga of “Where in the world is Roberto Devereux?” at the COC continues. Originally Giuseppe Filianoti was slated to sing the title role in the seven show run that began April 25th. At some point, some while ago, it was announced that Leonardo Capalbo would sing the first three performances; which he did to some acclaim. During the week the rumour mill started grinding with news that cover Edgar Ernesto Ramírez would sing tomorrow night’s show and, a bit later, that Filianoti was out completely. All this has now been confirmed. Mexican born Toronto resident Ramirez will sing tomorrow and then Spanish tenor José Bros will complete the run (or at least that’s the plan). It’s a great break for Ramírez and we wish him luck.
I went back for a second look at Roberto Devereux at the COC last night. My original impressions pretty much stand but this time I remembered my opera glasses and was able to focus more on some of the details of this quite intricate production. I do still struggle a bit with the music. There’s this jaunty little tune (doo de doo doo doo doo dooo) that crops up all the time and often at the least emotionally appropriate moments and there’s the interminable overture and thank goodness for Lawless’ allegorical prelude because listening to it in front of a closed curtain would have been intolerable. Still, the drama was pretty intense and Sondra Radvanovsky has, if anything, grown into the role. The last scene, portraying the dying queen’s emotional disintegration is worth the price of admission. I also got more of a sense of Russell Braun and Allyson McHardy being in role and having developed some chemistry that was a bit absent on opening night.
There are four more peerformances between now and May 21st with Giuseppe Filianoti now replacing the excellent Leonardo Capalbo in the title role.
Photo credit – Michael Cooper
Stephen Lawless’ production of Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux opened last night at the Four Seasons Centre. It’s the last of the so called “Tudor Trilogy” and deals, ostensibly, with the last days of the reign of Elizabeth I. Events are loosely based on history. In this case the queen’s relationship with Robert Devereux, earl of Essex; his failure in Ireland, fall from grace, rebellion and execution for treason(1). Here the drama is turned into a simple story of royal jealousy featuring two fictional characters; The duke of Nottingham, Devereux’ bestie, and his wife Sara, confidante of the queen and in love with Devereux. It’s probably best seen as a logical continuation of the anti Tudor theme of the previous operas. There’s a bombastic, lustful monarch more concerned with his/her love life than affairs of state and there’s a scheming arch-Protestant minister responsible for the death of someone who doesn’t deserve for it for reasons of state (here the younger Cecil). The trouble here is that there is no obvious martyr. However one looks at it Devereux, brings about his own downfall.
operaramblings 