Donizetti Roberto Devereux DVD with Edita Gruberova, Albert Schagidullin, Jeanne Piland (NR) +Movie Reviews

A good opera ruined by the staging

A. BOSS | Mountainside, NJ United States | 08/11/2006

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Musically this is a very nice (but not outstanding) opera. However the staging and direction detract from it. One rather uninteresting set (it looks like a waiting room with a few chairs, a water cooler (from which cast members frequently get drinks for no reason) and a newspaper rack (the cast frequently reads newspapers which is probably more interesting than watching the action on stage) serves as a hall in Westminster, the duchess's private chamber, and a cell in the Tower. Costumes are not very fashionable modern dress.

The best way to enjoy this performance is to close your eyes."

A frustrating production even though Gruberova shines

Toni Bernhard | Davis, CA United States | 08/25/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"It's a joy to see and hear Edita Gruberova, approaching 60, playing Queen Elizabeth I with almost the same agility and control as she exhibited 25 years earlier in such roles as Constanze in Mozart's "Abduction from the Seraglio" (1980) and Gilda in Verdi's "Rigoletto" (1981) - also available on DVD. She is still a master of coloratura technique; I especially love her delicate trills. Yes, some of her high notes sound strained (just as Sutherland's did toward the end of her performing career) but it doesn't detract from the excitement of her performance. The supporting cast is very good, especially Roberto Aronica (as Devereux) who has an expressive, full-bodied tenor voice. However, this opera belongs to Elizabeth. Donizetti gave her all the coloratura pieces and Gruberova doesn't disappoint.

But now I have to start subtracting stars from Gruberova's five-star effort. The setting of the opera is updated, a bold move in a opera based on historical figures. I'm game though (it's not as if Donizetti and his librettist stuck to the historical record), but the director's vision must make sense. This staging does not. The opera takes place in a big room that is unidentifiable and bears no relation to the action. It looks like it could be the waiting room at a train station or a hotel lobby or perhaps the reception area of some multinational corporation. The soloists and chorus, when not singing, alternate between reading tabloid newspapers and filling their cups from a water cooler. Almost everyone is in a suit, most of them as grey/brown as the dreary chairs and the walls around them. But most puzzling is: who is this Elizabeth supposed to be? The words are there in the subtitles - Queen, crown, kingdom - but no one treats her like royalty. (She just joins everyone in the cavernous room - no one bows or treats her with deference.) She looks like a corporate executive at a conference, even clutching a handbag as she moves around and sings. It's hard to believe this Elizabeth has the power to order Devereux's execution. During her big last act scene, she is at least in a gown and they do wheel in a crown at some point, but other than this, I'm clueless as to the concept behind this production.

Aside from Gruberova's performance, the highlight of the DVD is a 20 minute "Behind the Scenes" bonus feature with interviews of cast and crew, including Gruberova. It's a highlight because the interviews shed light on Donizetti's original work (but not, unfortunately, on the concept behind this production).

Those who are familiar enough with the opera to be able to just appreciate the music and the quality of the singing may well enjoy this production despite the unfortunate staging."

There's An Argument for Intelligent Traditional Stagings

Stanley H. Nemeth | Garden Grove, CA United States | 08/16/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"It's fast becoming clear that stagings in European opera houses these days are by and large in the unwittingly trite "tradition of no tradition." To the claim that one can't do new productions in the same old manner, I'd reply that it's hard these days to see any productions that respect those historical particulars that would allegedly maim a new staging. What we are regaled with instead is an operatic theater featuring the philistine set designer and barbaric costumer as stars. These fashionistas are devoid of any depth of respect for the works they stage, focusing instead on a sort of colorless and mindless minimalism. No discernible fresh but relevant ideas are behind the changes these persons choose to introduce; if there were any, one might be able to make a case for them. Instead, what we have is a parade of repetitive and uniform ugliness.

What is not recognized is that it's the intensity and passion of the composer and the performers that allow a work from the past to transcend a specificity of time and place to achieve universality. It is manifestly not mere costumes and sets, altered for no discernible purpose. The real innovation these days would involve a demotion of these princes of decor to an appropriate subordinate place.

Fortunately, this production features an all stops out performance by Gruberova which can make one forgive much. Even in late career, her work is distinguished for its beauty and passion, and it makes the viewer wish the fashionistas involved in this production had seen the same power in the work that Gruberova surely did. Then the DVD might have merited 5 stars."

Disagreeable sets, but still worth the effort

Robert Petersen | Durban, South Africa | 08/12/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"My title says it all. The singing is excellent, with Gruberova showing she can still pack a punch in her portrayal as Elizabeth. The updating of the opera to modern dress will deter many a traditionalist, hence my 4 star rating, although it does not bother me, as the dramatic qualities of Donizetti's score have never been acted out as well as this in previous productions. Watch it and see what I mean!"

Outstanding conceptualization; a showcase for Gruberova

Niel Rishoi | Ann Arbor, MI USA | 04/27/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Elisabetta: Edita Gruberova

Roberto: Roberto Aronica

Nottingham: Albert Schagidullin

Sara: Jeanne Piland

Cecil: Manolito Mario Franz

Paggio: Steven Humes

Giacomo il Re: Johannes Klama (silenzio)

Bayerisher Staatsoper

Friedrich Haider conducting

Staging: Christopf Loy

Sets, costumi: Herbert Murauer

Video director: Brian Large

****************************

Forget history, forget tradition. This is a modern conceptualization of English monarchy. A monarchy where things have not changed; executions still exist, the Queen's law still,well, LAW. Martial law, perhaps. This is a current-day England, stark, austere surroundings, not a hint of warmth. Severe, tailored suits for both the men and women; only Elizabeth is allowed any kind of color in her own outfits. The set resembles not so much a palace as a corporate boardroom that's all business, all in blacks and grays.

I'm usually against most "updatings" because they go into weird conceptualizations that have nothing to do with the premise; often times, there will be gimmicks and distractions to take us away from the music, even to the core of the drama, and worse, the singing. Not this production. It rather ingeniously conjures up another kind of kingdom, repressive, and severe, as if the royal figure wanted to keep matters in firm check against any kind of a "personal ruling" aspect. Oddly enough, it works. If you can forget history (Donizetti does anyway; he has Elizabeth abdicating to "Giacomo, il Re" at the end), this is an intriguing concept. Christopf Loy forsakes excessive gimmickry and focuses on the dramas inherent, aided by Herbert Murauer's spare sets and costumes. What this creates is an explosive drama about infidelity ( (imagined and real), betrayal and treason at its most grim. It is often brutal, tense and powerful; these figures emerge as unerringly real people. Amazingly enough, it only serves as to how astonishingly modern Donizetti's score is. No other musical drama depicts such a marvelous dichotomy of Elizabeth the Queen versus the Woman. The opera looks way way forward ahead of its time, presenting the queen in a psychological depth unheard of in the "bel canto" genre. Poor Donizetti lost his wife during a cholera epidemic in this time, and he seems to transmute his misery through this brilliant, evocative score. The queen's emotions scream out the agony of her dilemma, and this staging makes that pain really, vividly manifest. It is the score of a man beside himself with grief.

Loy has fleshed out all the characters indelibly. Quite often, the "secondary" chracters take a back seat to the leads, but not here. Sara and Nottingham are presented as a couple truly "in extremis," where marital trust and suspicion play a horrifying reality not usually encountered in opera. Sara, tormented by love for Roberto, and torn by her wifely duties, is made a loomingly tragic figure. Misunderstood and scapegoated by Nottingham's jealousy, she is much of a victim as Elizabeth. Nottingham becomes the unwitting catalyst for the story's resolution. Jeanne Piland and Albert Schagidullin give magnificent performances, not at all the "secondary" leads. They are in the forefront of the drama, and they respond to their assignments with unerring skill. Piland has a full-bodied mezzo which she uses expressively in her aria, "All'aflitto," (whose melody inspired Verdi's "Va, pensiero"), full of foreboding and remorse. Schagidullin, frankly, has a rather gritty, Germanesque throatiness, but what an actor. He depicts his character's vengeance and horror at Sara's alleged duplicity with marvelous intensity. Roberto Aronica, in the title role, scores a triumph. No "park and bark" tenor, he seizes the opportunity to create a real 3 dimensional figure. He allows himself to be blindfolded and stripped down to his underwear in the last act aria and cabaletta. Furthermore, he strives to sing expressively, putting real meaning into his words and angling to flesh out a real character worthy of the Queen's attentions.

This documentation of Edita Gruberova's Elisabetta may in fact be her finest, most committed, and certainly most "demented" performance. She's in Rysanek territory here. This conceptualization suits her to perfection. Here, playing the aging Queen, she has no need to be a younger personage. Outfitted in severe, tailored suits with a strawberry-blond bouffant, she conjures up an unmistakable cross between Margaret Thatcher and the current Elisabeth herself. Gruberova commands the walk, motions, and stature of a Royal figure. Though some of the sudden descents into the lower regions of her tone are a challenge for her bright, high-lying voice, she is in ideal form, making the most of the text and imbuing the line with sagacious skill. Gruberova etches the slow melodies with dynamic variety, while exhibiting immense dramatic power in the tense confrontations. She shirks none of the physical challenges, her body allowing itself to be used in every possible means to depict the Queen's increasing frustration and loss of control. The final scene though, is where Gruberova pulls out all the stops. After delivering a pain-wracked "Vivi ingrato," with long-lined expressivity, the discovery of Roberto's unwarranted execution, bringing about Elisabetta's abdication, Gruberova tops all else she has done before. With nerve-shattering intensity, she delivers "Quel sangue versato" as if this were her last performance. Gruberova does her classic wig-removing bit, where you see the balding, pathetic Queen exposed as a completely broken woman; "Non regno, non VI-vo" and she means it. Gruberova seems to be living in the moment. Face slack with shock, hyperventilating in desperation, close-ups reveal the extent of her involvement. After abdicating to her nephew, the Queen staggers upstage, and collapses, topples over into insane, abject grief. Her soul is dead, she is no more. This is operatic drama at its most powerful and brutally realistic.

"

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	Donizetti - Roberto Devereux Actors: Edita Gruberova, Albert Schagidullin, Jeanne Piland, Roberto Aronica, Nikolay Borchev Directors: Friedrich Haider, Christof Loy Genres: Indie & Art House, Drama, Music Video & Concerts, Musicals & Performing Arts NR 2006 2hr 15min
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