Opera 27
Donizetti: Maria Stuarda
Soloists
Chorus and Orchestra of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna
Richard Bonynge
Don Pasquale is one of my favourite operas but other than that my knowledge of Donizetti is pretty patchy. Perhaps there is just so much to go at that it is all a bit overwhelming.
I remember seeing the famous confrontation scene between Mary and Elizabeth (which of course didn’t happen in real life) on a TV broadcast years ago and I knew the prayer that Mary sings before her execution - other than that his was new piece for me.
There was a fair amount of rum-it-rum routine in the more vigorous sections of the opera - something one has to get used in Italian operas of this period of course - but the lyrical material is highly attractive - there are some wonderful moments throughout the score. The confrontation scene is dramatic but the final pages are probably the best in the opera. The prayer is intensely moving and there is some heartbreaking music here - perhaps the very last moments are rather weak and hackneyed - composers of this period often didn’t quite know to end pieces.
So I was glad to have heard the opera. Whether it will lead to my exploring the rest of Donizetti’s output remains to be seen.
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