VIEWPOINTS – All hail the queen! Sondra Radvanovksy triumphantly completes Donizetti’s bel canto triple crown

DEV_0178bAll hail the queen! This season at the Met, towering soprano Sondra Radvanovsky has accomplished a rare and truly impressive hat trick – she’s played the three queens in Donizetti’s bel canto “Tudor Trilogy”.  Earlier this season, I caught her stellar performance as the titular Maria Stuarda. Although I unfortunately missed her as Anna Bolena this season at the Met, I was able to catch her tremendous work in the opera for the Washington National Opera three seasons ago. Nothing could have prepared me, however, for the dramatic and vocal intensity of her work as an aging Queen Elizabeth I in Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux, which is now in performance at the Metropolitan Opera. Amazingly, the current production marks the first time the opera has been staged at the Met.

The great David McVicar (long been one of my favorite opera directors and is fast becoming indespensible at the Met), who directed Anna Bolena and Maria Stuarda, is at the helm once again. His dramatically potent new production (perhaps the most focused and successful of the three), which seems to be an homage to the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, envisions the opera as a sort of play-within-a-play. The fascinating unit set by Mr. McVicar (he also designed the scenery) depicts a 17th century Elizabethan court theater – one that wouldn’t be out of place during the Bard’s time – on which stage the the irresistibly melodramatic love triangle plot unfolds. The idea works remarkably well, working on a number levels.

The production reunites hard-working tenor Matthew Polenzani and baritone Marisz Kwiecien (who play Robert Devereux and the Duke of Nottingham, respectively), both of whom were so memorable earlier this season in the rare revival of Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers at the Met. Although they both had their rough vocal patches during yesterday’s performance, they were in dramatically forceful shape. I’ve long thought that soprano Elina Garanca possessed one of the plushest voices in all of opera but has been held back by her wooden, internal portrayals. Here, she both sounded fabulous and acted with a freedom and fire that I found thrilling to watch. Which brings us to Ms. Radvanovsky, who was just sublime from beginning to end, creating a compelling arch to Elizabeth’s trajectory that less skilled actresses would have bypassed. Vocally, her steely, viscerally-charged soprano cut through the melodramatics like a hot knife. Her mad-cum-death scene at the opera’s conclusion was a masterclass in all respects and was quite simply one of the greatest moments in all my years of opera-going (with Mr. McVicar providing an unforgettable stage picture). The Met orchestra sounded excellent – both subtle and incisive, as needed – under conductor Maurizio Benini’s baton. This production of Roberto Devereux is an unqualified triumph for both Ms. Radvanovsky and the Met.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

 

ROBERTO DEVEREUX
Opera
The Metropolitan Opera
2 hours, 45 minutes (with one intermission)
Through April 16

Categories: Music, Opera

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