Maria Stuarda at the ROH

[David-G]

Words fail me in trying to say how wonderful Joyce DiDonato was as Maria Stuarda. Rupert Christiansen of the Telegraph found appropriate words:

"Joyce DiDonato’s performance as Donizetti’s Mary Queen of Scots leaves one bereft of adequate superlatives. So let me just start by claiming that bel canto of this quality has not been heard at Covent Garden for more than a generation and that on the strength of this night alone, her name should rank in the operatic pantheon alongside the greatest legends of the past.

Flawless technical virtuosity – based in firm legato, lucid projection, clean diction, breath control, fast trills and precisely articulated runs – makes every note tell. But this is the mere machinery, the hard work.

DiDonato has the rarer gift of imaginative musicality too, and it’s the glowing beauty of tone, warm shaping of phrase, delicate colouring of words and intense commitment to character which cast the magic and make the drama meaningful.

Proud yet vulnerable, impulsive, arrogant, deeply unsure of herself and her own worst enemy, DiDonato’s Mary is not just heart-rendingly beautiful but also vividly real – aching with nostalgia in her opening aria, fiercely defiant when confronted with Elizabeth, bitterly remorseful in the duet with Talbot, and poised in the face of death with a mixture of courage, terror and spiritual calm that I found almost unbearably moving."

It is being broadcast this evening, and will (hopefully) be on the iplayer for a week. Anyone who appreciates fine singing should not miss this!

[gurnemanz]

We were there in a packed ROH last night and I can only second the points made above. We usually avoid going to London mid-week but decided we had to go to this one and the the 8 hour round trip down the M4 from North Wilts was certainly worth it. We had booked late - after the reviews - and could only get two seats, sitting separately, in the front row amphitheatre with "restricted legroom". But you do get a great view there and the performances certainly transcended the somewhat incoherent staging and my knee cramp. I cannot imagine the title role being better sung: A thrilling moment when she calls Elizabeth "vile bastard" who "defiles the soil of England" and it was good to see Joyce not encumbered by the wheelchair which she sat in the other time we have seen her - in The Barber a few years ago.

On holiday in Ireland last week we visited the Crumlin Road Jail in Belfast (now a museum and well worth it). Little did I realise that only a week later it (or something like it) would figure in Maria Stuarda.

[A point for Pedants Corner: A man in the row right behind us yelled out "Bravo" very loud after one of the marvellously sung female arias, possibly keen to get himself on the radio. As a language teacher and pedant, I had to restrain myself from turning round and correcting his grammar to "Brava".]

[Giacomo]

Production of Maria Stuarda at the ROH

Words fail me in trying to say how awful the production of Maria Stuarda at the ROH is. Rupert Christiansen of the Telegraph found appropriate words:

"production from Hell"

"Sadly, this enthralling interpretation is framed by a roundly booed production in almost every respect so execrably crass as to bring the judgment - if not the sanity - of those responsible into question."

"Why did nobody in its early evolution put a stop to it?"

"a viciously unattractive staging in which only the two queens wear any semblance of Tudor costume."

"But everything else in the production reeks of directors whose starting point was mere perversity rather than truth to the music or libretto."

It is being performed twice more this week, anyone who appreciates opera performed in a public toilet should not miss this!

[kernelbogey]

Well it sounded pretty good on Radio Three last night - albeit it was my first hearing of the piece....

[jean]

There's a thread on it already.

http://www.for3.org/forums/showthread.php?11654-Joyce-DiDonato-in-Maria-Stuarda-at-the-ROH

[gurnemanz]

I've already been on the other thread, but in response to the initial posting here, I would say that reviews such as that one from Rupert Christiansen (hotfoot from Glyndebourne) prepared me for something far worse than we actually got. Critics (and messageboarders .... I saw no "public toilet") sometimes revel in hyperbole. The staging didn't really work for me but did not detract seriously from our enjoyment of the production overall - prisons are after all not usually pleasant-looking places.

[kernelbogey]

Despite some interesting commentary from Christopher Cook and guest Roger Parker, I couldn't quite understand the point of the mixed chronology of the staging. Did that aspect make sense, Gurnemanz?
Edit: (PS I've asked FF to merge threads)

[french frank]

(PS I've asked FF to merge threads)

Merged - I'm intrigued

[Giacomo]

PS I've asked FF to merge threads

The other thread is about DiDonato's singing. You and the forum manager clearly miss the point. You've not seen it (if you've only heard it once on the radio). What I saw and heard were so unrelated it warrants separate discussion.

[jean]

I see no reason why different aspects of the production shouldn't be discussed on the same thread.

What happens when you get these multiple threads is that someone with something to say sees one of them, is unaware of the other(s), and posts something which was not what the OP intended.

Then you get similar discussions going on in several different places.

[french frank]

The other thread is about DiDonato's singing.

I have amended the thread title. Anything about the production can be discussed here.

[kernelbogey]

The other thread is about DiDonato's singing. You and the forum manager clearly miss the point. You've not seen it (if you've only heard it once on the radio). What I saw and heard were so unrelated it warrants separate discussion.

In fact there are photos on the Radio Three website which, taken together with the presenters' comments, give a fair idea of the mixture of Tudor costume and contemporaneous costumes and sets. I missed exactly what the director said about his purpose in this staging - but obviously it was to make a rather laboured point about contemporary relevance etc (not something that was missed, I understand, by the audiences at the premiere stagings).

What you didn't acknowledge, Giacomo - and welcome to this Forum, BTW - is the quality of singing referred to in other posts.

BW, kb

[David-G]

I am not sure that merging the threads was a good idea - I am now completely confused as to who has replied to what. I presume that Giacomo started a separate thread on the production. (Welcome to the Forum, Giacomo!) I had deliberately not mentioned the production in my original post, and not quoted Rupert Christiansen's very negative remarks on the production, because I wanted to emphasise the outstanding quality of the singing - and because for Radio 3 listeners, it was the singing rather than the production that would be relevant. But now that the discussion has been opened up, I would like to give my view.

I have just returned home from another performance of "Maria Stuarda". As before, it was a simply wonderful evening, among the most magnificent that I have spent at Covent Garden. The production had significant weaknesses, but with respect, I do not think that it deserves the damning words of RC or of Giacomo. Yes, the set was a prison, but to all intents and purposes it was just a big space in which the events could happen. The set was rather ugly, and not (to my mind) in keeping with the spirit of the opera; but the direction of the principals was in general very fine. Despite the restrictive formal musical structures of the opera, the principals acted their roles entirely convincingly. Elizabeth was queenly and disdainful; Mary equally regal, going through a whole gamut of emotions. The famous confrontation was electrifying. All this was very fine (save Leicester, who came across as rather a wimp). The final scene was very harrowing, far more so than in the Met's less controversial production last year. It might, perhaps validly, be argued that the visual aspect of this scene does not sit comfortably with the bel canto opera style; but it was deeply affecting, and several hours later I still find myself quite unsettled by it. The way that this scene was presented had, I thought, significant aspects in common with the equally harrowing final scene in Peter Sellars's famous production of "Theodora" at Glyndebourne.

There were sillinesses and weaknesses in the production. The Palace of Westminster location of the first scene, with its "Ascot from My Fair Lady" chorus, seemed quite unrelated to anything that followed. Elizabeth pawing at Leicester's bare chest was ridiculous, and her taking off her wig for much of the scene was just bizarre. Leicester's wimpishness was not helped by his unstylish long-length coat. The frequent appearance of the axe gave rise to titters. The sheer ugliness of the prison set fought against the character of the music. All these things bothered me, but not significantly enough to seriously diminish my enjoyment of the wondrous singing. And certainly, the whole thing cannot be set on the same pedestal for production catastrophes as the recent Eugene Onegin and Don Giovanni.

[Flosshilde]

Despite some interesting commentary from Christopher Cook and guest Roger Parker, I couldn't quite understand the point of the mixed chronology of the staging. Did that aspect make sense, Gurnemanz?
Edit: (PS I've asked FF to merge threads)

From the production pictures on the R3 website it was only the two queens who weren't in 'contemporary' (ie with us) dress. One of the producers explained, in the intro on R3, that thay saw the queens as 'iconic' figures & used the Tudor/Stuart (if we're going to use the dynasty to denote the period/style) as a way of emphasising their seperateness. Elizabeth removing her wig signified a switch from public Queen to private woman (apparently).

[Honoured Guest]

Elizabeth removing her wig signified a switch from public Queen to private woman (apparently).

That should be comprehensible to most people. Remember how Mo Mowlam used her wig in private meetings.