Gruberova and Haider bring back Donizetti's Roberto Devereux at the Bayerische Staatsoper

Gavaneli_gruberova
Paolo Gavanelli and Edita Gruberova in Donizetti's Roberto Devereux. Foto: Wilfried Hösl.

Roberto Devereux

Gaetano Donizetti
Salvatore Cammarano (libretto)

Bayerische Staatsoper
Nationaltheater, March 8, 2010

to be repeated at the Münchner Opernfestspiele: June 30 and July 4, 2010

Conductor - Friedrich Haider
Stage Direction - Christof Loy
Set and costume design - Herbert Murauer
Lighting - Reinhard Traub
Dramaturg - Peter Heilker
Chorus director Andrés Máspero

Cast:
Elisabetta - Edita Gruberova
Herzog von Nottingham - Paolo Gavanelli
Sara - Sonia Ganassi
Roberto Devereux - José Bros
Lord Cecil - Francesco Petrozzi
Sir Gualtiero Raleigh - Steven Humes
Ein Page Robertos - John Chest

Bayerisches Staatsorchester
Chor der Bayerischen Staatsoper

Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux (1837) is quite a rarity, and many who are new to it might be tempted to assume that this is rather well justified. It could be said that the librettist Cammerano concocted a travesty of the story of Elizabeth and Essex, with singularly unappealing characters tied up in a knot of bad faith and vengefulness (one might equally say that of Wagner's Ring, of course), and that Donizetti glossed over it with course after course of conventional emotivity bathed in meretricious bel canto sauces. However, after seeing and hearing this at first seemingly rather strange and off-putting but passionately committed production, only the most rigidly prejudiced will refuse to admit that they have been fascinated and moved. Conductor Friederich Haider, above all, conveyed his belief in Roberto Devereux's quality and power through his deep understanding of bel canto as a psychological and dramatic idiom. In fact his contribution was equalled by the magnificent performances of Edita Gruberova and Paolo Gavanelli. Christof Loy's production, which sets the action in modern Britain, may seem perverse at first and Herbert Murauer's set and costumes singularly depressing, but eventually the distracting contemporary details vanish, as one abandons oneself to Donizetti's spell.

Read the full review on the Berkshire Review for the Arts!

Michael Miller