OPERA Headliners of the Year
Maria
Padilla at The Opera House, Buxton .
Photo: Violeta
Urmana.
Every
opera festival needs its unique selling point: Wexford, for example, is always
good for a surprise, Glyndebourne is good for a picnic and Buxton is usually
good for a laugh. Over the past few years, the Buxton festival has forged a
reputation as a restorer of dusty comic gems. But perhaps wishing to avoid
over-association with the frothier end of the repertoire, the festival has
chosen to celebrate its 25th anniversary with one of Donizetti's most
mirthless late melodramas. Maria Padilla is an ambitious choice - one of those
hefty, bel canto marathons that prizes vocal artistry over dramatic art - yet
it feels like a reversion to the bad old days of Buxton biting off more than
it can chew. There is nothing about Aiden Lang's production that is not
perfectly adequate, but also nothing that would not be immeasurably improved
by longer rehearsal and a more accommodating budget.
The American soprano Brenda
Harris has been brought over to deal with the fierce and florid coloratura of
the title role, which she dispatches with steely attention to pitch but
scarcely any deviation in emotional colour. In terms of tonal subtlety and
dramatic engagement she is comprehensively outsung by the young British mezzo,
Victoria Simmonds, in the far less gratifying role of Maria's confidante and
sister, Ines. As the ruthless and charmless Pedro I of Spain, George Mosley is
saddled with some of Donizetti's most perfunctory evil-baritone music. But
what really elevates the opera above the routine is the strange and
charismatic conception of Maria's father, Don Ruiz, a tremulous old-timer who
loses his daughter, his honour and the skin off his feet in one of Pedro's
particularly cruel and sadistic punishments. In a highly unusual twist,
Donizetti scored the part of the old man for a high tenor, and Justin
Lavender's fluting, querulous performance provides the complex heart of the
drama. As the burden of humiliation tips Ruiz toward madness, the opera
climaxes in a long father-daughter duet of King Lear-like intensity. The young
Giuseppe Verdi must surely have been taking notes.-Alfred Hiking.
Macbeth:
Sir Charles Mackerras
conducts the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in a concert performance of Verdi's
wonderfully Italianate adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy. Baritone Mark
Delavan makes his European debut and mezzo-soprano Violeta Urmana returns to
Edinburgh after her triumph in Parsifal last summer as his wife. With
the voices of the Edinburgh Festival Chorus bringing Birnam Wood to Dunsinane,
this should raise the roof.
Born in 1925 of Australian
parents in the United States, Sir Charles Mackerras studied in Sydney and
Prague and made his debut as an opera conductor at Sadler's Wells. He was
First Conductor of the Hamburg Opera (1966-69) and Musical Director of both
Sadler's Wells (later the English National) Opera (1970-87) and of Welsh
National Opera (1987-92), where his notable Janácek productions -- among many
others -- won great acclaim. Mackerras has recently been appointed Principal
Guest Conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, following his lifelong
association with both the orchestra and many aspects of Czech musical life. In
1997 Sony Classical released his recording of Le delizie dell'amor, featuring
the soprano Andrea Rost. His most recent release for the label is Lucia di
Lammermoor with the Hanover Band. Other projects for
Sony Classical include recordings of Chopin's two piano concertos with Emanuel
Ax --. Mackerras is Conductor Laureate of the
Scottish Chamber Orchestra, having been their Principal Guest Conductor from
1992 to 1995, and was Principal Guest Conductor of the Royal Philharmonic
Orchestra from 1993 until 1996. He is now Conductor Emeritus of the Welsh
National Opera, where in recent years noted successes have been Tristan und
Isolde, The Yeoman of the Guard, and La clemenza di Tito (all of which
productions were brought to London). His long association with the Royal Opera
includes the recent productions of Gounod's Romeo et Juliette and Handel's
Semele.
Mackerras has undertaken much research into
performance practice of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
One of the highlights of the 1991 season
was the reopening of the Estates Theatre in Prague, scene of the original
premiere of Don Giovanni. Mackerras conducted a new production of that opera
to mark the bicentenary of Mozart's death. From 1993 to 1996 Mackerras was
Principal Guest Conductor of the San Francisco Opera. He has a long
association with the Metropolitan Opera in New York and has recently conducted
The Makropulos Case with the company. He will return for Katya Kabanova and
Die Zauberflöte. Mackerras received a CBE in 1974 and was knighted for his
services to music in 1979. At the end of 1996 he received The Medal of Merit
from the Czech Republic, and last year he was made a Companion of the Order of
Australia. He has been awarded honorary doctorates from the Universities of
Hull, York, Nottingham, Brno, Griffith (in Brisbane, Australia) and finally
Oxford (1997). Mackerras celebrated his seventieth birthday in 1995 with gala
concerts with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in Edinburgh, the Welsh National
Opera in Cardiff and with the San Francisco Opera.