Admin

Organization

Singer

Soprano

Mariella Devia

Elizabeth

Maria Pia Piscitelli

Baritone

Mariusz Kwiecien

The Duke of Nottingham

Angel Odena

Mezzo-soprano

Silvia Tro Santafé

Sara

Veronica Simeoni

Tenor

Gregory Kunde

Roberto Devereux

Ismael Jordi

Juan Antonio Sanabria

Lord Cecil

Bass

Andrea Mastroni

Sir Walter Raleigh

Conductor

Bruno Campanella

Andriy Yurkevych

Stage director

Alessandro Talevi

Set designer

Madeleine Boyd

Costume designer

Lighting designer

Matt Haskins

Chorus master

Andrés Máspero

Teatro Real de Madrid

Madrid

Spain

Teatro Real

In the last and most dramatic aria in Roberto Devereux, one of the four Tudor period operas composed by Donizetti in 1837 (along with Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda and Il Castello di Kenilworth), the protagonist, Queen Elizabeth I of England, exclaims: “I do not reign, I do not live”. This statement encapsulates its great operatic themes, and is the culmination of an opera that reveals the passions of characters who live among palace intrigues. Written in the mature period of the leader of Italian romanticism, the opera displays a great vocal virtuosity and is an example of Donizetti prizing the voice above all in the genre. The staging, by South African director Alessandro Talevi, who has been very successful in great opera houses as well as with more experimental theatre, places the play in an undetermined period, focusing on chiaroscuro. Bruno Campanella conducts the production with Mariella Devia (Award Winner: Singer of the Year at the Opera Awards 2016), Silvia Tro Santafé and Gregory Kunde in the main roles.

With a libretto loosely based on the relationship between the Earl of Essex and Queen Elizabeth I of England, Donizetti created a work full of virtuoso arias, softening the historical events with bel canto and coloratura.  First performed at the Teatro San Carlo, Naples, on 29 October 1837, it reflects the desolation of the composer, who had lost his parents, his two children and his wife Virginia.

 

Salvatore Cammarano based his text, as in Lucia di Lammermoor, on the drama of a doomed relationship between Queen Elisabetta (Elizabeth I of England) and Roberto, Earl of Essex, who is in love with Sara, the wife of his friend the Duke of Nottingham.  Donizetti refined his tendency to concentrate emotional climaxes and action in a limited space: the tragedy of two ill-fated couples is continually sustained by the music.

Roberto Devereux Donizetti

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