Raising a child is a complicated process. Raising a prodigious one is absolutely unforeseen and fraught with constant error, for no ordinary laws apply here. The Donizetti Festival in Bergamo, although still an officious event, always seemed to be this prodigy for me, every year somehow attempting to prove that Donizetti’s music might be the center of the opera world. Its naivety, passion, courage, and spontaneity have earned the love and loyalty of its guests. And not only theirs. With all the missteps made over 10 years of its history, criticism, and bureaucratic problems, its creators no, its parents chose love as the main approach to its development, and for this, I have always respected and adored this festival.

The tenth edition of the Donizetti Opera opened this weekend in Bergamo with the staging of “Roberto Devereux.” What this milestone event could showcase to its guests? Fantastic staging, breathtaking singing, stars, young talents, perfectly harmonized choir, characteristic orchestra, creativity, and lessons learned?

Can one put it all in one of the shortest Donizetti’s tragedies? Can the death case become just what the doctor ordered?

The Gothic Framed Bright / Who Death Came For

The life of a queen is a burden, but how unbearable it must be if the questions of life and death of loved ones become a surreal game of power where only death can benefit.

Stephen Langridge set the questions of how it feels to be each and every character of this story (all victims) and built his narrative around it. Every singer worked through their roles to understand profoundly how the story affects their characters to make them reliable, and through this to shape what is the perfect singing — artistically not only technically, since opera is a theater and not a singing competition.

Sometimes the voice might crack, just like one’s life.

Death reigned there, and so it arrived in production in the shape of a skeleton copy of the Queen, masterly operated by two puppeteers. She dances, mourns, she even rides the young Roberto. And we are all enchanted by her, unable to stop watching. Just like the Queen herself, who tries but fails to resist the power of death.

Maybe it’s the only power left for the aging queen.

The death was so clearly around that it filled the entire stage with its presence. The hourglasses, skulls, fading sanders, and endlessly wilting cut flowers. This world was not doomed, the doom it was.

Katie Davenport‘s design of the set and costumes, full of beautiful symbols giving unfortunately no hope, is just another wonderful example of how the shadow may enlighten the storytelling.

The Queen of The Festival

I cannot forget the sound of fast writing, almost scribing on the paper by my colleagues when Jessica Pratt arrived on the stage. What was it — an anticipation of delight or failure? No matter the result, the role debut of the Australian soprano, who is an undisputed queen of many previous editions of Donizetti Opera, was probably the main topic of the evening.

Pratt’s soprano is not an obvious choice for the role, strong and flexible at the high notes, would she be able to reach the depth of the tragic fate of the lonesome queen? Before the premier, Riccardo Frizza took a stand, explaining his choice and providing his confidence and support to the singer.

In the first moments on the stage, she was noticeably nervous, yet, it was well melted with the dark feelings of the queen. Frizza was concentrated on her, the contact was vital. The pens were ruffling. Would they write about the effort Maestro put into the preparation of a singer for the non-standard repertoire? Hardly so.

Exploring and extending the abilities of the instrument is always beneficial and sometimes even career-saving for the singer. Partnering with an experienced music director, not a vocal coach for such a risky matter might be more effective, but more important — for the industry and most middle-career singers — would be to normalize such practice. In this case, besides the obvious benefits for the singer, we would break the casting stagnation in the major theatres, open the new star voices that were wrongly defined (remember the story of Jonas Kaufmann), and maybe create some iconic artistic pairs just like in old good times.

Soon on the stage, there were no more questions, here she was — The Queen. Taking just a few moments to build herself up, Jessica Pratt gave one of the finest performances of her life. Her middle register was impeccable, it was soft and deep, articulation was clear and detailed upon the refined orchestra background. Her coloratura was filigree. But her finest moment came at the end, when merged with her role she turned into rather a terrifying creature, releasing her powerful bottom sound with a full chest and not needing even support from maestro Frizza anymore.

The Solid Cast

But who would the be queen without her court? The Queen Jessica could not worry. The performance of the opening night must be written in textbooks as a perfect example of what we call a solid cast.

Raffaella Lupinacci portrayed Sara with vigor and power, determination, and a willingness to step on the throat of her grief, and even her honor, but not her voice. Her instrument has an outstanding quality. Her romantic tone was soft, the grief was deep, and her high notes stroked fiercely.

Simone Piazzola delivered a perfect image of a nobleman, where every part of this word mattered and underlined. Robust and fearless, but loyal and loving, the Duke of Nottingham could only be broken by the betrayl of his loved ones, and the perfect control Piazzola conducted over his voice allowed him to show the crack in the character in detail.

John Osborn was a fine Roberto, a bit static people said, but I believe the character was just like that. His technique was solid, the timbre clear, but with all his presence he just allowed things to happen around him. This resignation made his prison aria “Come uno spirto angelico” even more heartbreaking, while the quality of singing brought it almost to the level of “E lucevan le stelle.”

Ignas Melnikas and Fulvio Valenti were so convincing in their roles, without losing a single sound, that there was no way their roles could be called secondary. These two, only with the support of the choir could make us feel the presence of a large royal court and the massive pressure it put on the queen.

The Sound and The Color

The choir, both female and male ensembles, was an indispensable part of all the most important scenes, at times, they tore and threw the world of Her Majesty, and sometimes remained almost hidden, but always gave the scene the necessary scope and power. The quality of the singing was unbelievable and worthy of the soloists.

Maestro Frizza conducted the orchestra with passion and satisfaction, one could easily guess this piece was his choice. The tempi were just perfect for the singers to show a high-tier articulation, to bring emotion in every single sound, but fast enough and certainly energetic.

But, if I need to choose one term to describe his reading of the piece, I would choose colors and shades. It was unbelievable to hear all these bright and deep colors in such dark times, as well as the changes of the characters in wonderful details while one might expect they would be simply dissolved in the sounds of desperation and death.

It seemed that drawing this colorful picture wasn’t difficult for the Maestro at all, since this opera was (or became) more than just a tragedy for everyone involved (not only on stage). Eventually, all together they triumphed and it was a rare example of a real team effort.

And It Remains

So, can they do that? Can the Donizetti Festival produce a refined performance that the critics demanded from them all these years? Yes. And this production of “Roberto Devereux” is the proof.

But, now I tell you the main thing about it (and the next two productions of this year will prove my words presently) — they certainly can, but they won’t.

Because there’s so much more than this in opera art, seeking perfection might be actually one of its weakest values. And if in quite terrible realities of the Italian opera industry, the festival team decides to dedicate more (of their limited sources) to seeking new reflections, highlighting important topics, discovering new talents, enhancing the choir and orchestra, and encouraging the local community, I will applaud all their imperfect performances as loud as I did at this year’s fantastic opening night.