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OPERA REVIEW
Donizetti's Battle Of The Queens
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By Heather Hadlock
The dramatic climax of Donizetti's Mary Stuart comes at the end of the
second act, when Mary, goaded beyond endurance by insults from her cousin
and rival Elizabeth I, calls Elizabeth a disgrace to the English throne,
the "vile bastard" of "that whore, Anne Boleyn." At the first dress
rehearsal in 1834, the singer playing Mary delivered these lines with such
passionate sincerity that the singer playing Elizabeth slapped her face. A
fistfight ensued, at the end of which Elizabeth swooned and had to be
carried out by her indignant friends.
In the opera, of course, it's Elizabeth who remains standing. But the
point is clear: this piece is all about female rivalry, jealousy, and
violence. As such it requires not one but two prima donnas with
first-class technique, vocal quality, and stamina. Graced with two such
stars, Pocket Opera presented an enjoyable performance of this challenging work
Sunday in the Florence Gould Theater at the Palace of the Legion of Honor.
Vicky van Dewark, as Queen Elizabeth, really sank her teeth into her virago
role. From her first entrance she easily dominated the chorus and the
rather insipid Earl of Leicester. Her coloratura passages had a splendid
malice and authority, and she launched an armada of trumpeting high notes
at the audience. Her spiteful, ranting, ambivalent Elizabeth did justice
to Donizetti's fascination with the corrupt and murderous side of female
power, also apparent in the anti-heroines of Roberto Devereux and
Lucrezia Borgia.
But the opera's second act introduces a new type of heroine. Mary Stuart,
with her melancholy optimism, doomed love, and resignation in the face of
persecution, foreshadows Gilda, Violetta, Desdemona, and all the other
"sublime victims" who would eventually dominate Romantic opera. If
soprano Ellen Kerrigan gave little sense of Mary's pride, ambition, and
checkered marital history, this is because Donizetti himself gave so little
attention to the character's dark side, depicting Mary as an innocent woman
sacrificed to Elizabeth's furious jealousy. And quibbles over
characterization seem trivial, in light of Kerrigan's gorgeous voice and
polished technique.
The musical highlight of the evening was the finale to Act II, in which
these two leading ladies confronted each other with strong support from the
assembled secondary characters. Bass Richard Mix and baritone Todd Donovan
were excellent as Mary's ally Lord Talbot and Elizabeth's councilor Lord
Cecil, respectively. Mix's rich bass blended well with Kerrigan's limpid
tones, and Donovan's boyishly sinister manner made a nice counterpoint to
van Dewark's severity. Tenor William Gorton, as the Earl of Leicester, had
a well-focussed but not particularly pretty or expressive voice.
After the splendid outburst of melody and passion that ended Act II, the
third act sagged. The action effectively ended with Elizabeth's
condemnation of Mary to death, and the last half hour was more like a
cantata than an opera as Mary prepared for death in a series of slow and
melancholy tableaus. The singable but prosaic English translation did not
add dramatic interest; indeed the English words only made one conscious of
exactly how little was happening. The six-person chorus was not quite
sufficient to the gravity of the music, and even Kerrigan's lustrous
pianissimos could not rescue the final scenes from anti-climax.
The lack of an orchestra also weakened the last act. The first two acts
were remarkably effective with the minimal support of the "Pocket
Philharmonic," made up of a string quartet, five winds, and the
indefatigable Maestro Pippin at the piano. But the string players bungled
the ominous prelude to Act III, and could not convey the emotional tumult
of Elizabeth's decision to sign the death warrant, or of Mary's confession
of her sins. Mary's Prayer, floating over the chorus, worked well as a
virtually a cappella number, but her final aria deserved the support of a
full orchestra.
(Heather Hadlock is Assistant Professor of Music History at Stanford University)
©1999 Heather Hadlock, all rights reserved
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Ellen Kerrigan