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After having opened the season with his production of “Adriana Lecouvreur,” David McVicar returned to Teatro Real for his new production of “Maria Stuarda,” co-produced with Teatre del Liceu, Donizetti Opera Festival-Bergamo and Finland National Opera. McVicar is one of the greatest directors of this generation and his productions are shown at major opera houses around the world. He chooses to abandon abstract and conceptual productions in order to stage period versions with big realistic sets and costumes with a modern acting approach, making the scenes believable.

David McVicar’s Production Details

McVicar‘s “Maria Stuarda” production is very appealing and was warmly rewarded by the audience at the curtain call (It is very strange for a stage director not to be booed these days). But to be honest, it looks too much like his previous production for Met Opera. The stage has a central, large platform and barely any sets or props, except for a table and chairs, similar to Shakespeare’s Elizabethan theatre style. There are also acrobats and dancers for the opening chorus. The second act begins with a bald Elisabetta being dressed by her maids, placing a wig over her head. I was a bit disappointed. I was expecting something more original or a different approach rather than doing a minor version of his Met Opera production.

Although, at the very end, when Stuarda kneels before the wooden scaffold block, and places her head over it with her arms opened to the side like a crucifix, with the executioner carrying a big axe right behind her, was a strong theatrical effect. The period costumes designed by Brigitte Reiffenstuel were gorgeous.

Lisette Oropesa as Maria Stuarda

Soprano Lisette Oropesa performed the titular role, showcasing her lyric coloratura qualities perfectly. Her sound is round and dark, and although she keeps a strong high register (up to high Ds in this role), her voice tends to be more lyrical  suits the middle- centric vocal writing of the part. Her interpretation of “Oh! Nube,” featured long legato lines and beautiful piano sound. She also managed to sing the low sections of the cabaletta (low Ds), while rising fluidly up to high Cs in the coloratura sections. Oropesa sang her own beautiful and stylish variations on the second verse, including a strong exposed high D. She interpreted a moving duet with the tenor. That said, in my opinion, her lines, “figlia impura di Bolena…meretrice indegna…vil bastarda,” in the final ensemble lacked dramatic potency. She tried using her chest voice on the lower notes, but her instrument is not powerful enough to be that imposing. Her final interpolated high D was barely audible, but this was probably due to the conductor’s choice of playing as loud as possible.

Oropesa was sorrowful and lamenting during the slow section of her duet with Talbot, filling Donizetti’s long legato lines with emotion. She sang her own cadenza at the end, rising up to high C, even if it reminded one too much of Bolena’s cadenza during her mad scene aria. Since she is unable to sing pianissimo, her intent to sing the written crescendo on a high B natural in “l’ultimo dolor, ah!” was timid and weak, which was cut on the second verse. She culminated the duo with a high D, which sounded small and distant.

But it was in the third act where the sopranos who sing Stuarda are put to the test, with extreme emotions and technical vocal challenges. Oropesa sang with precision, and for once, managed a proper pianissimo and crescendo on the impossible G that Donizetti demands to be held for eight bars before ascending to a high B flat. The soprano held the high B flat in an extremely long phrase while slowly turning her body around 360 degrees (something which turned out to be unnecessary and meaningless, and seemed like an effect of vocal virtuosity, although I don’t know if it was the soprano’s idea or McVicar’s).

And yet the soprano lacked true pathos in her final scene. She seemed to be more focused on singing well than being in the Queen’s extreme mental state. But after her final interpolated high D, Oropesa made a thrilling interpretation of the very last actions, as she walks blindfolded (by a cloth that her maid, Anna, had put over her eyes as she had commanded) while her whole body shakes in terror. It was quite effective when she knelt in front of the wood block where she was going to place her head, after making the sign of the cross with an uncontrollable shaking hand. Oropesa is a great singer, and she has lots of amazing vocal qualities, but I she lacked the dramatic depth to give this role its due.

Aigul Akhmetshina as Elisabetta

Aigul Akhmetshina as Queen Elisabetta is vocally impressive. Her sound is rich and round with astounding projection and flexibility. During her opening recitative and first line of her opening aria, “Si voul di Francia il rege…Ah quando al’ara,” one might not have believed she would be able to reach high notes comfortably or sing the many roulades and scales with precision due to her big voice (It is rather strange that Elisabetta’s role is the one that has more coloratura throughout the whole opera). But she navigated comfortably through the several Gs of the aria and delivered a perfect high A in the final cadenza. The phrase of the subsequent cabaletta, “ah dal ciel discenda,” is even higher, going up to A naturals constantly. Her vocal technique supports her full voice, producing impressive high notes, like a high B natural in the bridge between the two verses of the cabaletta. She sang the written B natural at the end, and she interpolated an impressive high D at the end, which was a complete surprise as this is a high note completely out of the mezzo-soprano’s range. If her voice was lighter it would have been understandable, but with such a strong instrument it seemed unbelievable! She sang her own subtle beautiful variations on the repetition of the cabaletta.

Akhmetshina was menacing and strong in the final ensemble of the first act in her confrontation with Stuarda. Her voice was the only one clearly heard over the orchestra, soloist and chorus singing in forte. She carried her voice over the exaggerated sound coming from the pit. But her big moment was in act two where she went through a wide range of emotions, including rage, doubt, guilt, false security and authoritarianism, as she decides Mary’s death sentence even fearing a war with the Catholic monarchy. Akhmetshina made an amazing vocal portrayal of the queen’s thoughts and feelings, sounding weak and fearful for moments, but determined and secure at the same time. She proved to be a great actress, in addition to already being considered a remarkable singer with strong vocal technique.

Ismael Jordi as Leicester

The Spanish tenor Ismael Jordi as Leicester is no stranger to this role. He has performed it many times, including very recently at Les Arts Valencia. In fact, he has performed the three tenor roles of the Tudor trilogy many times. But according to many tenors (Jordi’s opinion as well) Leicester is the hardest one due to its high tessitura. The problem is that it is mostly written above the passagio, navigating constantly between high G and A naturals, something very demanding which can cause vocal fatigue and pitch problems. But Jordi’s light lyrical voice easily manages the tessitura, singing an ardent opening aria and cabaletta, “Ah! Si miro!…” se fida tanto,” coronated with a final long high C. He showed his exquisite and expansive long vocal phrasing and breath technique, including exquisite middle range and diminuendo. He proved this in his soaring pianissimo while sustaining a high G sharp during “nel suo martir,” his duet with Elisabetta.

He also proved how he sustains his high tessitura easily, emitting a beautiful high B natural in the line “era celeste l’anima,” which is a very hard note as it is part of a long legato line and one has to pass through it softly and elegantly since it is not an explosive and climatic high note (This also proves how extremely high this role is, even if B natural is the highest written note of the score. Lord Percy, in “Anna Bolena,” which is a tenor role, was written for a high tenor, Giovanni Battista Rubini, who has plenty of high Cs on the score. But the tessitura in general is much lower, considering the keys of the arias of this role were lowered to make them accessible to other tenors as they were full of high Cs, Ds and E flats to show off Rubini’s stratospheric voice). Although Ismael Jordi’s voice is not big, it is precise and projects well, as evidenced by his final B natural at the end of the duet was perfectly audible alongside the thunderous note sang by the mezzo-soprano. He sounded emotional and lyrical in his duet with Stuarda.

Jordi’s last long intervention is the trio with Elisabetta and Cecil in Act two where he kept singing the long legato lines that Donizetti wrote with emotion, keeping the use of his beautiful middle range and exquisite diminuendo. Jordi is a true Bel Canto tenor and an amazing artist.

More Musical Highlights

The role of Lord Guglielmo Cecil is very short. It basically participates in a short duet with Elisabetta and the subsequent trio with Leicester, but Andrzej Filończyk showed his warm timbre, his marked vibrato and his extensive vocal range, by interpolating a surprising and unexpected high G at the end of his intervention of the duet. The Italian bass Roberto Tagliavini was impeccable in the short role of Talbot showing his bel canto background and his beautiful bass lyric sound.

The conductor José Miguel Pérez Sierra presented the critical edition of the score by Anders Wiklund, or at least that is what was written in the program, because while consulting this critical edition I have found out that he has introduced many sections which belong to the changes that Donizetti made for the 1835 premiere of “Stuarda” at la Scala (the opera premiered at Teartro San Carlo in Naples in 1834). He introduced a whole long overture (where Stuarda’s cabaletta leitmotif is present, the opening chorus is different and the ending adds some bars (again with Stuarda’s leitmotif) before she walks to the scaffold. Then it would have been great if he had offered the score with no cuts, as it is usually done when using a critical edition, but, the cabaletta for the tenor was only played once (which on the other hand is understandable due to its great difficulty).

Pérez-Sierra opted for a strong approach in general, making Donizetti sound like Wagner, reinforcing the dramatic nature of the score and the timbrric details of the rather simplistic Bel Canto orchestration. He demonstrated all the potential of this score, which is far greater than just a few beautiful melodies to show off the voices. The only problem is that the balance between the orchestra and voices was not equal and during ensemble or climatic moments when the orchestra was playing forte, it hid the voices. It must be considered that Donizetti’s score was conceived for a smaller orchestra and therefore the sound was smaller. The orchestra and chorus of Teatro Real kept its high standards.

This new production of “Maria Stuarda” from the prolific and talented director Sir David McVicar, with Lisette Oropesa in the titular role, accompanied by bel canto expertise tenor Ismael Jordi and the astonishing Aigul Akhmetshina as Elisabetta, turned out to be technically impressive but lacked dramatic depth in the final scene.