MARIA STUARDA
Gaetano Donizetti (1797 - 1848)
Opera in three acts in Italian
Libretto: Giuseppe BardariPremièr at Teatro San Carlo, Naples – 18 October 1834
02†, 05†, 07 May 1967
Teatro Comunale, Firenze
XXX. MAGGIO MUSICALE DI
FIORENTINO
OPENING PERFORMANCE
FOR THE MEMORY OF ARTURO TOSCANINI
NEL ENTINARIO DELLA NASCITA DI ARTURO TOSCANINI
Conductor: Francesco Molinari-Pradelli
Chorus master: Adolfo Fanfani
Stage director: Giorgio de Lullo
Scene and costumes: Pier Luigi Pizzi
Direttore dell'alesstimento / Production Manager: Egisto Bettini
Registe assistente / Assitant Director: Piero Faggioni
Scenografo realizzatori / Set Designers: Giovanni Broggi, Raffaele Del Savio
Direttore musicale di palcoscenico / Musical Director: Erasmo Ghiglia
Registe assistente / Assitant Director: Piero FaggioniRegiste assistente / Assitant Director: Piero Faggioni
Scenografo realizzatori / Set Designers: Giovanni Broggi, Raffaele Del Savio
Direttore musicale di palcoscenico / Musical Director: Erasmo Ghiglia
Scenografo realizzatori / Production Designers: Giovanni Broggi, Raffaele Del Savio
Direttore musicale di palcoscenico / Musical Director: Erasmo Ghiglia
Maestro collaboratore /Asistant Conductor: Luigi Morosini
Aiuto maestro del coro / Assistant Chorus Master: Francesco Prestia
Maestro della banda / Bandmaster: Angiolo Massini
Assistante alla regia / Assistant Director: Giulietta Seylaz
Direttore di scena / Stage Manager: Sergio Coppini
Altri maestri colloboratori / Accompanists: Maria Concetta Balducci, Gianni Del Testa, Gilberto Fintoni, Marcello Guerrinii, Giorgio Vanni
Realizzatore delle luci / Lighting Designer: Guido Baroni
Capo macchianista / Chief Engineer: Enza Mariti
Capo attrezzista / Chief Props Master: Giulio Cipriani
Costumi / Costumes: Cerratelli
Attrezzi / Props: Rubechini
Maria Stuarda
"Dom Sébastien? Un' opera che può svelarsi ' nostra' , viva, attuale. Grazie al nodo centrale che la caratterizza: l' incontro-scontro tra due mondi, due culture e religioni, il cattolicesimo e l' islamismo. Con l' onda di passioni e fanatismi che ne consegue". Parla Pier Luigi Pizzi, regista, scenografo e costumista del Dom Sébastien che apre la stagione del Comunale di Bologna. Raffinato e fuori dalle mode, votato a un' emozione totale del teatro ("non ho mai considerato che per me esistesse qualcosa di altrettanto importante"), Pizzi affronta l' opera di Donizetti con la consapevolezza di un artista che appartiene al nostro tempo: "Quel che mi ha più interessato nella vicenda, inclusiva di una parte storica, con personaggi realmente esistiti, è il conflitto tra i protagonisti: Zayda, la sola donna dell' opera, e Dom Sébastien, re del Portogallo. Personaggi agli antipodi, come i mondi che riflettono: l' Islam e il cattolicesimo di fine 500. E' dalla loro opposizione che può nascere una chiave drammaturgica efficace". In che modo questa lettura influisce sulle scelte dell' allestimento? "Dal punto di vista figurativo la religione, presenza forte e anche sinistra nell' opera, determina una scelta cromatica orientata su toni cupi, dominata dal colore del bronzo, ma un bronzo acceso da bagliori. E la regia accoglie atmosfere a volte violente, come la battaglia del secondo atto. Violenza giustificata, visto che per un verso, quello del cattolicesimo, ci si riferisce agli anni dell' Inquisizione, mentre l' altro versante, il mondo islamico, appare attraversato da un fanatismo integralista oggi di attualità scottante". Questa considerazione non le ha ispirato aggiornamenti modernisti? "Operazioni tipo mettere l' Algeria odierna al posto del Marocco del libretto? Per carità! E' una moda superata, anche se capita ancora che qualche regista si lasci sedurre da questo genere di interventi assurdi e fin troppo visti. A Vienna per esempio, di recente è andato in scena un Guglielmo Tell pieno di divise naziste... Che senso ha? E' molto più serio fare quello che ha chiesto l' autore, magari isolando le peculiarità di un' opera e trovando il modo di renderle importanti. Eleggendole chiavi di lettura, senza per questo forzare o stravolgere il libretto". Dom Sébastien è un' opera ardua da affrontare per un regista? "Non facile, certo. C' è il rischio di cadere nella trappola dell' enfasi a scapito dell' espressione. Ha la struttura tipica del grand-opéra, fastosa e piena di tributi al gusto parigino dell' epoca. Il libretto di Scribe ha aspetti ridondanti, e la scansione dei cinque atti, che proponiamo integralmente, include ben 20 minuti di balletto, per una durata di tre ore e mezza. Nella ricerca di simmetria, la mia regia unisce i primi due atti, lascia il terzo isolato e mette insieme gli ultimi due". Qual è il suo rapporto con Donizetti? "L' ho frequentato molto, anche se mi mancano appuntamenti importanti come Don Pasquale. Come scenografo ho fatto una Maria Stuarda con la regia di De Lullo al Maggio Fiorentino del ' 67, con due star come Leyla Gencer e Shirley Verrett: un trionfo, oltre che la rivelazione di un' opera straordinaria caduta nell' oblio. L' anno dopo, alla Scala, sempre con De Lullo, firmai una Lucia diretta da Abbado, ispirata alla nebbie di Turner. In seguito sono tornato a Donizetti come regista: con Lucia (alla Scala), Les martyrs, Poliuto... E' un compositore che non concede più di tanto al regista, le sue opere sono innanzitutto per cantanti. E se è al suo meglio quando scrive per le voci, può essere meno felice nelle parti di contorno, con cori e balli al limite della convenzione". Che percorso segue l' esplorazione? "Quello della ricerca del sentimento dei personaggi a cui è affidata l' emozione della storia, che in Dom Sébastien consente di far emergere passaggi intensamente lirici. E quello che punta, musicalmente, al massimo rigore esecutivo, più che mai necessario in un' opera tanto faraginosa e affollata, assediata da un perenne horror vacui. E' quel che si è tantato di fare qui, con il maestro Gatti. Anche la parte del balletto, con artisti come Carla Fracci, George Iancu e Roberto Bolle, evita il decorativismo in nome di un drammaturgia compatta". Dom Sébastien è stata rappresentata molto poco, fin quasi a scomparire dai cartelloni dei teatri. Come spiega questa scarsa fortuna? "E' un' opera esigente, faticosa da mettere in scena, che richiede uno sforzo produttivo immane. è un' opera che è stata molto mal eseguita e devastata dai tagli, che a Bologna rigorosamente evitiamo".
Calzature /
Footwear: Sacchi
Elisabetta Queen of England SHIRLEY VERRETT mezzo-soprano
Maria Stuarda Queen of Scotland LEYLA GENCER soprano [Role debut]
Anna (Hannah Kennedy) MAFALDA MASINI mezzo-soprano
Leichester (Robert Duddley) FRANCO TAGLIAVINI tenor
Talbot (Earl of Shrewsburry) AGOSTINO FERRIN bass
Cecil (Lord Burleigh) GIULIO FIORAVANTI baritone
A Herald MARIO FROSINI tenor
Time: 1567
Place: London and North Northamptonshire
† Recording dates
Photos © FOTO FIORENZA, Firenze
Photos © FOTO MARCHIORI, Firenze
Drawings / Sketches © PIER LUIGI PIZZI
SCENE & COSTUMES from the book I Disegni del Teatro del Maggio Musicale
Fiorentino Inventario – IV (1963 – 1969) Moreno Bucci [2017]
 |
Act I, Act II, Act III (Backdrop) |
 |
| Act I |
 |
| Act II (Variant) |
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| Act II Scene III |
 |
| Act II |
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| Act III, Scene I |
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| Act III, Scene II |
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| Anna Kennedy (Act II) |
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| Bridesmaid of Maria |
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| Cecil (Lord Burleigh) Act I |
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| Cecil (Lord Burleigh) Act II |
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| Cecil (Lord Burleigh) Act III |
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| Elisabetta Regina d’Inghilterra Act I |
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| Elisabetta Regina d’Inghilterra Act II |
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| Elisabetta Regina d’Inghilterra Act III |
 |
Elisabetta’s Master of Ceremonies |
 |
Hunters of Elisabetta |
 |
Knights of Elisabetta |
 |
| Sediari |
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Elisabetta’s Guards |
 |
Elisabetta’s Ladies (Act I, Act II, Act III) |
 |
Elisabetta’s Ladies (Act I, Act II, Act III) |
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Gentlemen of two Courts |
 |
Ladies of Maria Stuarda (Act II) |
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Ladies of Maria Stuarda (Act III) |
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Maria's Gentlemen |
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Giorgio Talbot |
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Maria Stuarda (Act II) |
 |
| Maria Stuarda (Act III) |
 |
Page of Elisabetta |
 |
| Page of Elisabetta |
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Roberto (Robert
Duddley, Earl of Leichester) (Act I) |
 |
Roberto (Robert
Duddley, Earl of Leichester) (Act II) |
 |
Roberto (Robert Duddley, Earl of Leichester) (Act II) |
 |
Unknown |
 |
Unknown |
 |
Her famous "Figlia impura di Bolena, parli tu di disonore? ... Profanato è il soglio inglese, vil bastarda, dal tuo piè!" |
 |
| In her dressing room after a performance |
LA STAMPA
1966.08.11
LA STAMPA
1967.02.19
CORRIERE DELLA SCALA
1967.02.27
OPERA MAGAZINE
1967 April
AVANTI
1967.04.21
LA STAMPA
1967.04.30
RADIOCORRIERE.TV
1967 April 30 - May 06
OPERA MAGAZINE
1967 May
CORRIERE DELLA SERA
1967.05.02
LA STAMPA
1967.05.02
CORRIERE DELLA SERA
1967.05.03
IL PICCOLO
1967.05.03
L'UNITA
1967.05.03
OPERA MAGAZINE
1967 September
OPERA MAGAZINE
1973 December
FINANCIAL TIMES
1973.12.17
KOBBE'S COMPLETE OPERA BOOK
1976
IL PICCOLO
1982.11.21
IL PICCOLO
1982.12.03
THE BELCANTO OPERAS BY CHARLES OSBORNE
1994
 |
opera seria in
three acts
Principal characters:
Maria Stuarda
(Mary, Queen of Scots) (soprano)
Elisabetta
(Elizabeth 1) (soprano)
Leicester (tenor)
Talbot (bass)
Cecil (bass)
LIBRETTO by
Giuseppe Bardari
TIME: 1587
PLACE: London and
Fotheringhay Castle, Northamptonshire
FIRST PERFORMED
(as Bundelmonte) at the Teatro San Carlo, Naples, 18 October 1834, with
Giuseppina Ronzi de Begnis (Bianca); Anna del Serre (Irene); Francesco Pedrazzi
(Buondelmonte); Federico Crespi (Lamberto)
FIRST PERFORMED (as
Maria Stuarda) at La Scala, Milan, 30 December 1835, with Maria Malibran (Maria
Stuarda); Giacinta Puzzi-Tosi (Elisabetta); Domenico Reina (Leicester); Ignazio
Marini (Talbot)
After the third performance of Rosmonda d'Inghilterra
in Florence, Donizetti made his way via Rome (where he rejoined his wife,
Virginia) to Naples where, on 12 April 1834, he signed a contract to compose a
new opera for the Teatro San Carlo. He had also been original form as Maria Stuarda. It then disappeared until its revival on 12 October 1958 at the Teatro
Donizetti, Bergamo, conducted by Oliviero de Fabritiis. The first English
performance of Maria Stuarda was given at the St Pancras Town Hall, London, on
1 March 1966. New York heard a concert performance on 16 November 1964, but the
first American stage performance was on 12 November 1971 at the San Francisco
Opera House, with Joan Sutherland as Maria Stuarda, conducted by Richard
Bonynge. Sutherland, Montserrat Caballé, Leyla Gencer and Beverly Sills have
all sung the title-role with great success in opera houses throughout the
world, and Maria Stuarda is now among the more popular of Donizetti's serious
operas.
Bardari's libretto is a travesty of Schiller's Maria Stuart, eliminating almost all of the play's political and religious references and reducing the number of characters from twenty-one to six. However, it retains the chief emotional situations of the play, and is compact and structurally sound, in other words an excellent text for opera. The leading characters are Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots. Elizabeth, in love with the Earl of Leicester, is persuaded by him to visit Mary who is being held prisoner at Fotheringhay. During the visit, Mary insults Elizabeth, and in due course Elizabeth signs Mary's death warrant. Leicester, in love with Mary, is ordered to witness her execution.
The overture which Donizetti wrote for the Milan première of Maria Stuarda is an imposing, large-scale piece. (Buendelmante had a much shorter prelude containing a fascinating clarinet part in recitative.) The opera's opening chorus and Elisabetta's graceful entrance aria ('Ah! quando all'ara scorgemi"), with its attractive cabaletta ("Ah! dal ciel discenda un raggio), are all quite conventional in form and content, but Leicester's cavatina ("Ah! rimiro il bel sembiante') and cabaletta ("Se fida tanto colei mi amo") are more interesting, the baritone, Talbot, joining the tenor, Leicester, in the second stanzas of both cavatina and cabaletta. A duet for Elisabetta and Leicester, its opening arioso leading into a melodious larghetto ('Era d'amor l'immagine"), a smooth reworking of material initially composed for a revival of Fausta, and its since ('Sul crin la rivale") fiercely urgent, makes a strong and distinctly unconventional conclusion to Act 1.
Act II introduces Maria Stuarda in a larghetto aria, "Oh! nube che lieve per l'aria ti aggiri', whose elegant, yearning vocal line perfectly reflects Maria's mood and situation, her longing for freedom and her native France. Her cabaletta, Nella pace del mesto riposo, after Maria hears the approach of the English Queen and her party, is made to sound all the more determined by its deliberately moderate pace. Just as affecting as the aria is Maria's duet with Leicester, 'Da tutti abbandonata', which leads to a brief sextet whose opening phrase (E sempre la stessa') sung by Elisabetta may have been in Verdi's mind seventeen years later when he came to write Leonora's opening phrase in Il Trovatore's "Miserere' duet. The scene in which Elisabetta and Maria (the two rivals who in real life never met) confront each other, described in Donizetti's score as 'Dialogo delle due regine" (Dialogue of the two Queens), subordinates’ music to the demands of the dramatic situation. However, music takes precedence over drama in the finale of the act, with pent-up emotions finding release in a fast and furious stretta.
After a brooding, restless orchestral prelude, Act III begins poorly with a carelessly written duettino for Elisabetta and Cecil which becomes a very ordinary trio with the entrance of Leicester. But this last act improves as it progresses. Its second scene is that of Maria's 'Duetto della Confessione" with Talbot, a beautifully written scene in which the sacrament of confession is administered to the Catholic Queen who comes to terms with her conscience in a moving larghetto ("Quando di luce rosea") ushering in a duet of a scale, intensity, and inexorable forward movement that one has come to think of as essentially Verdian.
The opera's finest scene is its last, with an ominous prelude, an elegiac, grief-laden 'Inno della morte' for a chorus of Maria's friends (surely the inspiration for more than one of Verdi's great choruses), and Maria's solo finale. Her voice rises to sustain a high note (G above the stave) for several bars above the chorus in the prayer ("Deh! Tu di un umile preghiera il suono odi') which is preceded by recitative prominently featuring a melancholy clarinet solo together with a muted comment from the chorus. This extremely moving number is based on a melody from li Parie which was to be used yet again by Donizetti, with modifications, in both Linda di Chamonix and Le Duc d'Albe. Maria's sad yet serene final larghetto ("Di un cor che more'), called in the score Aria del supplizie or Execution aria, is followed, as she prepares to mount the scaffold, by a simple, dignified, and intensely moving cabaletta, 'Ah! se un giorno dequeste ritorte.
Bardari's libretto is a travesty of Schiller's Maria Stuart, eliminating almost all of the play's political and religious references and reducing the number of characters from twenty-one to six. However, it retains the chief emotional situations of the play, and is compact and structurally sound, in other words an excellent text for opera. The leading characters are Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots. Elizabeth, in love with the Earl of Leicester, is persuaded by him to visit Mary who is being held prisoner at Fotheringhay. During the visit, Mary insults Elizabeth, and in due course Elizabeth signs Mary's death warrant. Leicester, in love with Mary, is ordered to witness her execution.
The overture which Donizetti wrote for the Milan première of Maria Stuarda is an imposing, large-scale piece. (Buendelmante had a much shorter prelude containing a fascinating clarinet part in recitative.) The opera's opening chorus and Elisabetta's graceful entrance aria ('Ah! quando all'ara scorgemi"), with its attractive cabaletta ("Ah! dal ciel discenda un raggio), are all quite conventional in form and content, but Leicester's cavatina ("Ah! rimiro il bel sembiante') and cabaletta ("Se fida tanto colei mi amo") are more interesting, the baritone, Talbot, joining the tenor, Leicester, in the second stanzas of both cavatina and cabaletta. A duet for Elisabetta and Leicester, its opening arioso leading into a melodious larghetto ('Era d'amor l'immagine"), a smooth reworking of material initially composed for a revival of Fausta, and its since ('Sul crin la rivale") fiercely urgent, makes a strong and distinctly unconventional conclusion to Act 1.
Act II introduces Maria Stuarda in a larghetto aria, "Oh! nube che lieve per l'aria ti aggiri', whose elegant, yearning vocal line perfectly reflects Maria's mood and situation, her longing for freedom and her native France. Her cabaletta, Nella pace del mesto riposo, after Maria hears the approach of the English Queen and her party, is made to sound all the more determined by its deliberately moderate pace. Just as affecting as the aria is Maria's duet with Leicester, 'Da tutti abbandonata', which leads to a brief sextet whose opening phrase (E sempre la stessa') sung by Elisabetta may have been in Verdi's mind seventeen years later when he came to write Leonora's opening phrase in Il Trovatore's "Miserere' duet. The scene in which Elisabetta and Maria (the two rivals who in real life never met) confront each other, described in Donizetti's score as 'Dialogo delle due regine" (Dialogue of the two Queens), subordinates’ music to the demands of the dramatic situation. However, music takes precedence over drama in the finale of the act, with pent-up emotions finding release in a fast and furious stretta.
After a brooding, restless orchestral prelude, Act III begins poorly with a carelessly written duettino for Elisabetta and Cecil which becomes a very ordinary trio with the entrance of Leicester. But this last act improves as it progresses. Its second scene is that of Maria's 'Duetto della Confessione" with Talbot, a beautifully written scene in which the sacrament of confession is administered to the Catholic Queen who comes to terms with her conscience in a moving larghetto ("Quando di luce rosea") ushering in a duet of a scale, intensity, and inexorable forward movement that one has come to think of as essentially Verdian.
The opera's finest scene is its last, with an ominous prelude, an elegiac, grief-laden 'Inno della morte' for a chorus of Maria's friends (surely the inspiration for more than one of Verdi's great choruses), and Maria's solo finale. Her voice rises to sustain a high note (G above the stave) for several bars above the chorus in the prayer ("Deh! Tu di un umile preghiera il suono odi') which is preceded by recitative prominently featuring a melancholy clarinet solo together with a muted comment from the chorus. This extremely moving number is based on a melody from li Parie which was to be used yet again by Donizetti, with modifications, in both Linda di Chamonix and Le Duc d'Albe. Maria's sad yet serene final larghetto ("Di un cor che more'), called in the score Aria del supplizie or Execution aria, is followed, as she prepares to mount the scaffold, by a simple, dignified, and intensely moving cabaletta, 'Ah! se un giorno dequeste ritorte.
L'UNITA
1997.09.04
LA REPUBBLICA
1998.12.29
LEONETTA BENTIVOGLIO
Un' opera che vive di un conflitto'
"Dom Sébastien? Un' opera che può svelarsi ' nostra' , viva, attuale. Grazie al nodo centrale che la caratterizza: l' incontro-scontro tra due mondi, due culture e religioni, il cattolicesimo e l' islamismo. Con l' onda di passioni e fanatismi che ne consegue". Parla Pier Luigi Pizzi, regista, scenografo e costumista del Dom Sébastien che apre la stagione del Comunale di Bologna. Raffinato e fuori dalle mode, votato a un' emozione totale del teatro ("non ho mai considerato che per me esistesse qualcosa di altrettanto importante"), Pizzi affronta l' opera di Donizetti con la consapevolezza di un artista che appartiene al nostro tempo: "Quel che mi ha più interessato nella vicenda, inclusiva di una parte storica, con personaggi realmente esistiti, è il conflitto tra i protagonisti: Zayda, la sola donna dell' opera, e Dom Sébastien, re del Portogallo. Personaggi agli antipodi, come i mondi che riflettono: l' Islam e il cattolicesimo di fine 500. E' dalla loro opposizione che può nascere una chiave drammaturgica efficace". In che modo questa lettura influisce sulle scelte dell' allestimento? "Dal punto di vista figurativo la religione, presenza forte e anche sinistra nell' opera, determina una scelta cromatica orientata su toni cupi, dominata dal colore del bronzo, ma un bronzo acceso da bagliori. E la regia accoglie atmosfere a volte violente, come la battaglia del secondo atto. Violenza giustificata, visto che per un verso, quello del cattolicesimo, ci si riferisce agli anni dell' Inquisizione, mentre l' altro versante, il mondo islamico, appare attraversato da un fanatismo integralista oggi di attualità scottante". Questa considerazione non le ha ispirato aggiornamenti modernisti? "Operazioni tipo mettere l' Algeria odierna al posto del Marocco del libretto? Per carità! E' una moda superata, anche se capita ancora che qualche regista si lasci sedurre da questo genere di interventi assurdi e fin troppo visti. A Vienna per esempio, di recente è andato in scena un Guglielmo Tell pieno di divise naziste... Che senso ha? E' molto più serio fare quello che ha chiesto l' autore, magari isolando le peculiarità di un' opera e trovando il modo di renderle importanti. Eleggendole chiavi di lettura, senza per questo forzare o stravolgere il libretto". Dom Sébastien è un' opera ardua da affrontare per un regista? "Non facile, certo. C' è il rischio di cadere nella trappola dell' enfasi a scapito dell' espressione. Ha la struttura tipica del grand-opéra, fastosa e piena di tributi al gusto parigino dell' epoca. Il libretto di Scribe ha aspetti ridondanti, e la scansione dei cinque atti, che proponiamo integralmente, include ben 20 minuti di balletto, per una durata di tre ore e mezza. Nella ricerca di simmetria, la mia regia unisce i primi due atti, lascia il terzo isolato e mette insieme gli ultimi due". Qual è il suo rapporto con Donizetti? "L' ho frequentato molto, anche se mi mancano appuntamenti importanti come Don Pasquale. Come scenografo ho fatto una Maria Stuarda con la regia di De Lullo al Maggio Fiorentino del ' 67, con due star come Leyla Gencer e Shirley Verrett: un trionfo, oltre che la rivelazione di un' opera straordinaria caduta nell' oblio. L' anno dopo, alla Scala, sempre con De Lullo, firmai una Lucia diretta da Abbado, ispirata alla nebbie di Turner. In seguito sono tornato a Donizetti come regista: con Lucia (alla Scala), Les martyrs, Poliuto... E' un compositore che non concede più di tanto al regista, le sue opere sono innanzitutto per cantanti. E se è al suo meglio quando scrive per le voci, può essere meno felice nelle parti di contorno, con cori e balli al limite della convenzione". Che percorso segue l' esplorazione? "Quello della ricerca del sentimento dei personaggi a cui è affidata l' emozione della storia, che in Dom Sébastien consente di far emergere passaggi intensamente lirici. E quello che punta, musicalmente, al massimo rigore esecutivo, più che mai necessario in un' opera tanto faraginosa e affollata, assediata da un perenne horror vacui. E' quel che si è tantato di fare qui, con il maestro Gatti. Anche la parte del balletto, con artisti come Carla Fracci, George Iancu e Roberto Bolle, evita il decorativismo in nome di un drammaturgia compatta". Dom Sébastien è stata rappresentata molto poco, fin quasi a scomparire dai cartelloni dei teatri. Come spiega questa scarsa fortuna? "E' un' opera esigente, faticosa da mettere in scena, che richiede uno sforzo produttivo immane. è un' opera che è stata molto mal eseguita e devastata dai tagli, che a Bologna rigorosamente evitiamo".
I NEVER WALKED ALONE
AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY BY SHIRLEY VERRETT (2003)
VERRETT ON MARIA STUARDA
Page
-130-
Maria
Stuarda in the Maggio Musicale production marked the beginning of my Italian
career as a major artist. I was a young singer with a good voice and growing
stage skills, and people were talking about me even during the rehearsals.
Leyla Gencer, who sang the title role, was a real prima donna and could
have easily taught me a thing or two about being one. She was an established
artist. I believe that she was afraid and felt, “Here is a new singer on the
scene. What’s going to happen to me?”
Page
-131-
When
the cast came out to take bows at the end of the first act, we lined up
backstage, which was the custom. It was also the custom for Leyla Gencer,
who sang the lead, to go out first. She grabbed me by the hand—I suppose, to
prevent me from usurping her position. That kind of thing was known to happen
in opera theatres all over the world, especially in Italy. I didn’t perceive it
as a friendly grab, because she wasn’t smiling. As she took my hand, she
squeezed it very tightly. I felt my back stiffen and my eyes widen at the pain
of her strong grip, with rings on her finger that cut into my skin. My
immediate reaction was to return the same to her, but in that split second,
thank God, I realized that she was nervous. I could feel her trembling. We were
in front of the curtain by that time. I just took my free hand and covered her
hand and rubbed it as if to assure her that it was okay. I felt her hand relax,
and she gave me a look as we went offstage. She still made sure that I didn’t
upstage her, though, by pulling me off the stage after her. The important thing
was that we became friends from that moment on. I could see the look in her
otherwise piercing eyes. They softened when she looked at me after that.
Page
-145-
In
December of 1968 I went back to Italy to do Maria Stuarda again with
Leyla Gencer. It was the same production we had premiered the year before
in Florence, but this time we performed in Naples. I had more engagement offers
than I could possibly handle. Even with all of that going on, I was still,
status-wise, a notch below where I thought I was.
Page
-176-
Montserrat
was a different Mary Stuart than Leyla Gencer was, but her
performance was every bit as valid. Gencer was more of a lioness in
the role. Her style resembled Callas’s in many ways. By comparison, the Verrett
/ Gencer match-up in Florence was dramatically stronger in the pivotal scene
where Mary and Elizabeth confront each other. I think our temperaments were
similar. Caballe didn’t move on the stage as aggressively
as Gencer did, but her singing was nothing short of gorgeous. I knew
there was a special reason for Montserrat’s quieter movements onstage during
that production: she was several months pregnant.
THE PROMISE
2014.10.01
AN ANECDOTE FROM A BOOK BY LEONARD SHEGOLD
“Virtue was not your portion from your mother; Well know we what it was which brought the head of Anne Boleyn to the fatal block. [louder] A bastard soils, profanes the English throne”. (Shiller, 1800, p.366]
The confrontation scene is also the dramatic
highpoint of Donizetti’s 1835 opera Maria Stuarda. Those who heard great operatic
actresses Like Leyla Gencer, Beverly Sills, and Joyce DiDonato, in the role of
Maria are likely never forget the sung/shouted epithet directed at the
provocative Elizabeth that brings on Maria’s execution.
From the libretto by Giuseppe Bardari:
Figlia impure di Bolena,
Parli tu disonore?
Meretrice-indegna, oscena,
In te cad ail mio rossore.
Profanato e sogli ingelese,
Vil bastarda dal tuo pie! (Act II, scene 4)
Impure
daughter of Boleyn,
You
speak of dishonor?
Whore-unworthy,
obscene, You make me blush.
Your
feet profane the throne of England, Vil bastard!
Quite a mouthful!
OPERA NEWS
MARIA STUARDA
Links from OPERA NEWS ARCHIVES related with Gencer’s performances
I'll Never Stop Saying Maria > Opera News > The Met Opera Guild
... standing stock still in my living room, riveted into place by the final scene of
Maria Stuarda, as sung by the "Queen of the Pirates," soprano Leyla Gencer. ...Maria Stuarda > Opera News > The Met Opera Guild
... (Pizzi also helmed the 1967 revival at the Maggio Musicale in Florence that starred
Leyla Gencer and Shirley Verrett as Mary and Elizabeth, respectively ...COMPLETE RECORDING
1967.05.02
COMPLETE RECORDING
1967.05.05
Recording Excerpts [1968.05.02]
Qui si attenda Act
I Scene I
Sì, vuol di Francia il Rege Act I Scene II
Ah, dal ciel discenda un raggio Act I Scene II
Ah, rimiro il bel sembiante Act I Scene IV
Sei tu confuso?
Act I Scene V
Era d'amor l'immagine Act I Scene V
Allenta il piè, Regina Act II Scene I
Oh, nube! che lieve per l'aria ti aggiri Act II Scene I
Non m'inganna la gioia? Act II Scene II
Da tutti abbandonata Act II Scene II
Qual loco è questo? Act II Scene III
E' sempre la stessa superba Act II Scene IV
Morta al mondo, e morta al trono Act II Scene IV
No. Figlia impura di Bolena Act II Scene IV
E pensi? E tardi?
Act III Scene I
Quella vita a me funesta Act III Scene I
Deh! per pietà sospendi Act III Scene II
La perfida insultarmi Act III Scene III
Quando di luce rosea Act III Scene V
Un'altra colpa a piangere Act III Scene V
Vedeste?... Vedemmo Act III Scene VI
Anna, Qui più sommessi favellate Act III Scene
Deh! Tu di un'umile preghiera il suono Act III Scene VIII
D'un cor che muore reca il perdone Act III Scene IX
Ah! Se un giorno
Act III Finale Scene X
FROM CD BOOKLET
MARIA STUARDA
The following quotation of Ms. Gencer’s on the Florence show have taken from Franca Cella’a “Leyla Gencer, romanzo vero di una Primadonna” CGS Edizioni, Venezia 1986.
After Anna Bolena (sung in 1958 in Milan and Glyndebourne in 1965) and Elisabetta in Roberto Devereux (Naples ’64), the role of Maria Stuarda completes the Donizettian trilogy of British Queens sung by Leyla Gencer. Three very different characters which, however, have in common the Elizabethan era in England, the court settings, political and amorous vicissitudes all set around personage of great femininity.
Leyla Gencer performed Maria Stuarda at the Maggio Fiorentino, after the great success of Alceste in the same theatre a year before. Maria Stuarda opened the opera season at the Maggio Fiorentino and the company included Giorgio de Lullo (stage director), Pie Luigi Pizzi (scenery and costumes) and Molinari-Pradelli as conductor who successfully brought out the instrumental freshness and forceful passages of Donizetti’s music.
Preparations began with Leyla Gencer’s avid studies into the character to be portrayed by her; reading and studying not only Schiller’s play but also the biographies by Brysson Morrison (Mary Stuarda) and Stephan Zweig. As during the rehearsals of Alceste, an atmosphere of intense pervaded the “team” with Gencer being guided by the talent of De Lullo and Pizzi.
The result of the preparations was a very modern version of the opera: “the sites” of the play re used as symbolic images; the stage is fairly bare with predominantly grey and black colouring and lighting that “cuts” into the space and isolates the characters. Fothringay Forest, where the Queens meet, was Pizzi’s idea: three tree trunks in perspective, one carved into the shape of a seat, a footbridge were all that set the scene, and a wide, open space where the prisoner runs into; the prison scene is also colours are grey and black, forming shadows and dark areas, lighting only that part of the stage where the Queen stands. The characters are dressed in symbolic colours: Elizabeth in white silk embroidered with gold threads in Act I; for the scene in the forest she wears fox fur and purple feathers for the execution scene. Maria Stuarda, on the other hand, is dressed in dark colours – midnight blue and black. “De Lullo portrayed these two historical characters clearly.
“The show was a great success, but I don’t think that De Lullo’s invaluable and ingenious direction was quite fully appreciated at the time.” comments Gencer. “It is the second great step forward in our time as far as the interpretation of the Donizettian opera is concerned. The first step was made by Visconti – Callas in “Anna Bolena” where Visconti concentrated first and foremost on presenting the characters and then around them built the settings and atmospheres. In “Maria Stuarda, De Lullo uses fade-ins and fade-outs with the purpose of making the chain of events clear. In act III, while Elizabeth sits sullenly on her throne, looking like a great ugly bird in her purple feathers (She must seem like and ugly bird said Giorgio) tormented and uncertain she finally decides Mary’s sentence to death, the figure Maria Stuarda appears at the back of the stage behind heavy tulle curtains dressed in blue with a black veil, and remains there, unmoving. Here she personalised Elisabeth’s obsession, her nightmare, and when Elisabeth eventually leaves the stage, Maria then becomes the actual person and moves forward onto the stage on the opening chords of the prison scene – all in perfect sequence – and an example of De Lullo’s very significant stage direction. The powerful presence of Shirley Verret sang the part of Elisabeth in Florence. “The first act is entirely Elisabeth’s and Stuarda only enters in the second act. In my usual and egocentric and arrogant way, that fist act just didn’t exist as far as I was concerned, I just forgot it.”, “Giorgio, when I enter in the first act …” and each time De Lullo would correct me: “It isn’t the first act, dear, it’s the second….” Verret’s arrival was full of pomp and splendour, and entering in a sedan chair carried by her pages and dressed in white. My costumes, on the other hand, were very simple, befitting the Queen prisoner. I wore an off-green redingote, with a parsian type hairstyle and small light green veil. Imploringly I cried: But Giorgio, it isn’t possible. At least let me have a fur collar…… But De Lullo was unmovable: No nothing more for you: a coat, gloves – and your hands in your pockets. On the May 2, 1967, the first night, there was an atmosphere of great excitement. In her room Leyla Gencer heard the thunderous applause for Verret at the end of the first act, and here her competitive streak came out. Wen Ms. Gencer appeared in the second act, rushing forwards into the stylised forest and moving towards the ray of light and hoped for freedom she was greatly striking in her austere green dress, gloves and grey veil fixed by a bonnet that softened her proud and also melancholy face. Recitative and cavatina dissolve the bel canto aria into a soft blend of images, colours and sighs and her voice reflects her emotions, nostalgic and tender. Here both situation and the character have to be presented: coming out into the fresh air after such a long time and letting reactions and emotions run free. Colours is fundamental – it must be bright because the feeling of freedom is linked / tied to life and hope. She is a complex character and nonetheless always surrounded by an aura of femininity. The aria O nube, che lieve is reminiscent of her happy childhood in France, and where a light and graceful voice is required that present the frail side of the character. There is just a tremor when the hunting fanfare is sounded (Qual suono!) and the voice colour hints at the possibility of a contrast. The moderato e fiero (Nella pace del mesto riposo) with its low, well timbred notes brings one back to reality and the fear of the confrontation with her rival Elisabeth, and is followed at mezza voce by “Da tutti abbandonata” Donizetti, unusually, breaks off the “Dialogo delle Regine” (as he himself called this piece) between the final Sestetto and Stretto so that from the strength of this episode the whole scene of their meeting is nearly brought together. The vocal and psychological counter position of both Elisabetta and Maria Stuarda reaches such a height that – as Donizetti wrote in one of his letters – stirred the first two singers Ms. Ronzi (Maria) and Ms. Del Sere (Elisabeth) up so much that during a rehearsal they almost came to blows! The luxuriant stature of Verret’s Elisabetta acts as a catalyst: Elisabetta replies rudely and full of irony to Maria’s tentative approaches (Morta al mondo) which gives Maria the opportunity to throw invectives at her using all that power so far repressed, sarcastic, leaving no room for reactions, scornful and furious. And ends (vil bastarda, del tuo pié!) with a powerfully dramatic finale. “I performed a recitative that, today, I would not advise anyone to do” – comments Gencer – “but something very violent an aggressive came out and was applauded midway bringing the duet to a peak”. More emaciated looking in her dark blue dress, a black shawl over her shoulders, Maria Sturada appears at the beginning of act III in prison, standing, isolated in a ray of light. It is the important scene and duet of the confession which requires fluidity of movement and co-ordination of a great variety of forms such as recitatives, at times regal and then melancholic, pauses for thought, difficult lyrical passages and dramatic pieces. With an unrestrained voice she begins (Ah! Dal cielo discende la tua voce!) followed by an obsessive crescendo (Talbot, Io vedi tu?) to a gentle legato, almost seductive (Quando di luce rosea .... amor mi fe colpevole m’apri l’abisso amor ....) The limpidity of the melody remains intact: the descending arpeggio are tearful and the high and light passage from G minor to G major (a typically Donizettian structure expressing great emotion) becomes the moment of sincerity and truth (Ombra adorate, ah! Placate). Confronted by the bass, Agostino Ferrini, and her prayer she exists from the scene and has just enough time to change into her red costume for the execution scene while the choir sings of the cruelty of the scaffold dissolving into the pathetic. We come to the last scene, dark, with just a few rays of light and the silvery reflections that come from the armour worn by the guards. Dressed in red, the Queen moves towards the centre of the stage, with a cross held up to her breast, surrounded by her maids, clad in black. “I was so immersed in the role of Catholic Queen destined to die that maids – the excellent chorus singers of the Florence choir – dissolved into tears during every performance that they could hardly sing”
The recitative expresses a feeling of resigned sadness (Deh, tu d’un umile, preghiera del suono) and the voice weaves in with the choir.; there is a “rapport” with the choir of reciprocal elegiac stimulation where the soprano’s voice maintains the note (here for eight lines), gaining great, irresistible strength. Lord Cecil and his guards’ approach with the sentence and Maria’s mood of resignation continues (Di un cor che more reca il perdono), the phrasing has great magnanimity portraying the monarch who is now looking beyond life (Sulla Bretagna, sulla sua vita favor celeste imploro). One’s thoughts are now centred on innocent blood (a theme dear to the arias and cabalettas, of English melodrama) , sacrificing oneself in order to cancel any guilty action. The Queen is now victorious over history, comforted by her religious faith, but nonetheless the romantic composer has not quite finished portraying the many different faces of the character nor reconstructing Schiller’s finale. The infallible love theme appears again as Maria recovers her “ancient” feminine charm expressed in a cabaletta where she takes her leave of Leicester (Ah, se un giorno da queste ritorte) followed by a tragic and theatrically amplified melody sung to the by-standers (E il mio sangue innocente versato) she walks upright and dignified to the scaffold, and as the curtain falls Maria Stuarda is silhouetted on the dark back-ground – a red blood stain on a dark piece of cloth.
