gramophone.co.uk GRAMOPHONESEPTEMBER 2019105OPERA REVIEWStherestofthework.It’sanotherfineset,
andifyoucareremotelyforCavalliyou
shouldhearit,alongwithFentross’s
L’Ipermestra.Inbothcases,however,the
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versionsofeitheroperaonline.TimAshleyDonizetti ◊Y
Il CastellodiKenilworth
JessicaPrattsop....................................................Elisabetta
CarmelaRemigiosop.................................................Amelia
XabierAnduagaten...............................................Leicester
StefanPopten..............................................................Warney
DarioRussobass................................................Lambourne
FedericaVitalisop..........................................................Fanny
ChorusandOrchestraDonizettiOpera/
RiccardoFrizza
StagedirectorMariaPilarPérezAspa
VideodirectorsAdrianoFigari,MatteoRicchietti
DynamicFbCDS7834;F◊37834;
FY 57834 (131’• DDD• 139’• NTSC• 16:9•
1080i• DTS HDMA5.1,DD5.1&PCMstereo• 0• s)
RecordedliveattheTeatroSociale,Bergamo,
November 24 &30,December2, 2018
Includessynopsis,CDtextandCDtranslationBel canto fans talk in
reverent terms about
Donizetti’s ‘Tudor
trilogy’, Anna Bolena,
Maria Stuarda andRoberto Devereux. Beverly Sills sang their
Tudor queens with New York City Opera
in the 1970s and Welsh National Opera
staged all three operas in a single touring
season. But that’s to overlook Donizetti’s
first Tudor effort, Il Castello di Kenilworth,
premiered in 1829 in Naples, ‘neither
too well performed nor too well received’,
according to the composer, who revised it
the following year.
The opera takes its inspiration from
Sir Walter Scott’s 1821 novel Kenilworth
and focuses on Robert Dudley, the Earl of
Leicester’s (‘Lay-chest-er’ as set in Italian)
attempts to court favour with Queen
Elizabeth I, which he can only do by keeping
his recent marriage to Amelia a secret. To
keep his wife out of the way when the queen
visits his residence, Kenilworth Castle,
Leicester arranges to have Amelia locked
up by his equerry, Warney, who lusts after
her and stirs up trouble. Unlike the novel,
where Warney kills Amelia, the opera ends
with Elisabetta forgiving Leicester.
The opera has been recorded twice
before, a 1977 performance by Opera
Rara at the Camden Festival, then in
1989 at the Donizetti Festival in the
composer’s home town of Bergamo.
Last year’s Donizetti Festival saw a new
staging by Maria Pilar Pérez Aspa which
features on this DVD/Blu-ray (the audio
is also released on CD), the first recording
of the original 1829 version.It’s fair to surmise that the director
blew the budget on the lavish costumes,
because there’s precious little staging of
which to report, a raked set with a few
carpets unfurled to suggest location.
Amelia is locked up in a wheeled-on cage,
while the idea of Elisabetta’s personal
imprisonment is suggested by being
trapped in her robes and regalia.
None of Donizetti’s music is especially
memorable, apart from the use of a glass
harmonica in Amelia’s aria ‘Par che mi
dica ancora’, seemingly a dry run for
the instrument’s appearance in the mad
scene of Lucia di Lammermoor a few years
later. The Donizetti Festival gathered
a respectable cast under the lively Italian
conductor Riccardo Frizza and the results
are enjoyable. Jessica Pratt is a spirited
soprano in bel canto repertoire and
gives Elisabetta plenty of coloratura
fire. Carmela Remigio has a warmer
soprano and presents a sympathetic
Amelia. The confrontation between
the two women presages the Elisabetta-
Maria Stuarda face-off but without the
same venom.
The tenors come off less well.
Xabier Anduaga is a decent bel canto
stylist as Leicester, although his voice
becomes pinched in the nosebleed
territory, and Stefan Pop is no more
than serviceable as the villainous
Warney. Mark PullingerCavalli’s L’Ipermestra received its irst modern performance in 2006, now available on disc and illing a gap in the Baroque discographyPHOTOGRAPHY:
MARCO BORGGREVE