Leyla Gencer Archive

MARIA STUARDA

Gaetano Donizetti (1797 - 1848)

Opera in three acts in Italian

Libretto: Giuseppe Bardari
Premièr at Teatro San Carlo, Naples – 18 October 1834

25†, 29 August - 01, 08, September 1969

King's Theater, Edinburgh

EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL

Orchestre e Coro del Teatro Comunale di Firenze

Conductor: Nino Sanzogno

Chorus master: Adolfo Fanfani

Stage director: Giorgio de Lullo

Scene and costumes: Pier Luigi Pizzi

Elisabetta Queen of England SHIRLEY VERRETT soprano

Maria Stuarda Queen of Scotland LEYLA GENCER soprano

Anna (Hannah Kennedy) MAFALDAMASINI 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 Northamptonshire

† Recording date

Photos © D. G. KINGSTON, Edinburgh

Leyla Gencer as Maria Stuarda, drawing by an unknown artist

I Disegni del Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Inventario – IV (1963 – 1969) Moreno Bucci [2017]

The staging of Maria Stuarda by Gaetano Donizetti and the revival of the one created, with the sketches by Pier Luigi Pizzi, for the XXX Maggio Musicale Fiorentino 1967.The original program, created by the Edinburgh International Festival on the occasion of this tour of the Municipal Theatre in Scotland, is not preserved in any of the Theatre Archives. The names of the characters and performers reported in the Catalogue of the Theatre’s events coincide with those of the theatre programme, which can be consulted online.

La messinscena di Maria Stuarda di Gaetano Donizetti e la ripresa di quella realizzata, con i bozzetti e i figürini di Pier Luigi Pizzi, per il XXX Maggio Musicale Fiorentino 1967. Il Programma di sala originale, realizzato dall’Edinburg International Festival in occasione di questa Tournée in Scozia del Teatro Comunale, non e conservato in nessuno degli Archivio del Teatro. I nomi dei personaggi e degli interpreti riportati net Catologo delle manifestazioni del Teatro coincidono con quelli del Programma di sala consultabile online.

SIGHTSEEING IN SCOTLAND

1969 AUGUST - SEPTEMBER

OPERA MAGAZINE

1969 March

THE GAZETTE

1969.05.07

THE LEADER POST

1969.07.05

THE MUSICAL TIMES

1969 August

OPERA MAGAZINE

1969 August

OPERA SCOTLAND

1969 August

These three week visit to the 1969 Festival by the opera company from Florence brought a repertoire of largely unfamiliar work, with the popular Verdi and Puccini presented with good casts that justified their inclusion. Two full-length operas were brought, Donizetti's Maria Stuarda as well as Rigoletto. There were two double bills. Gianni Schicchi was paired with a rare Rossini piece, Il signor Bruschino. There were also two little known twentieth century operas, with composers still alive. These were by Malipiero (Sette Canzoni) and Dallapiccola (Il prigioniero).

Scottish Opera's contribution was on the Fringe - a late night double bill at the Gateway. This consisted of Robin Orr's Full Circle and the premiere of a comedy by John Purser, The Undertaker. The Music Theatre Ensemble provided late night showings including Monteverdi (Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda) and Stravinsky (Renard). The Usher Hall programme included Giulini conducting the Verdi Messa da Requiem.

This was a landmark Scottish premiere of what has now become one of Donizetti’s most popular dramas. After a difficult creation it had failed to catch on in Donizetti's lifetime, and was rediscovered more than a century after his death. The British premiere was a small-scale production at the 1966 Camden Festival, so this was the first major staging in Britain.

It was an immediate sell-out at the box office, hardly surprising given the local interest in the subject matter, and for the most part it worked well. The designs were excellent and had been tactfully adapted for the restricted space of the King's stage - the production was mounted at La Scala as well as Florence. The most important sequences - the great confrontation that ends the second act, and the succession of meditative arias for Mary as she approaches the scaffold, found Leyla Gencer at her best. However, the performances were dominated by Shirley Verrett in lustrous voice. She really enjoyed something of a triumph, which was further cemented at the end of the Festival when she was an outstanding contributor to a pair of Verdi Requiem performances conducted by Giulini.

http://www.operascotland.org/tour/448/Elisabetta%2C-Regina-d%27-Inghilterra-1972

AVANTI
1969.08.10