Mary Stuart (Opera North) – Lowry Theatre, Salford

Writer: Donizetti

Director: Antony McDonald

Conductor: Guido Johannes Rumstadt

Reviewer: Tom Andrewes

The Public Reviews Rating:

Donizetti’s opera begins at a time when Mary, Queen of Scots has been a prisoner in England for nineteen years, and explores the dilemna of Elizabeth’s situation. Mary is a threat to the throne, and also arouses jealousy on a more personal level, especially in the apparent rivalry for the love of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. The journey to the inevitable conclusion builds up tension throughout, but in this production there was somewhat of an unforseeable snag.

Antonia Cifrone, having given an excellent performance so far, lost her voice at the end of Act two. This meant that the crucial first scene of Act three had to be omitted, and this did to some extent mar the flow of the drama.

For one whose opera going began in the late 1950s one of the great pleasures of these days is the much higher general quality of opera production and performance we now enjoy,especielly outside London. This is due, in no small measure, to the work of Opera North, who are currently on very good form. This is exemplified in the ‘Cosi’ and ‘Broucek’ of last year and now in Maria Stewarda (Mary Stewart.)

The first British production in 1966 generated a lot of excitement, firstly because of its novelty and secondly because of a spellbinding performance by Marie Landis. And today? This work has proved to be a superb vehicle for good dramatic singing, as it did then. In spite of Cifrone’s vocal problems, her part in the emotional centre of the work – the now famous duet of the two queens – gave full justice to the visceral antagonisms represented in the score.

Likewise the breathtakingly brilliant performance of Sarah Conolly as Maria beautifully came up to the expectations generated by those 44 year old memoies. They achieved a great cloraturs moment. Bulent Bezduz as Leicester, David Kempster as Cecil and Frederic Bourreau as Talbot all carried their roles with assurance, and Michelle Walton as Hannah was a delight.

The two concluding scenes; Maria’s farewell to, and prayer with the people, and the final meeting with Leicester before her execution were produced with a fulsome emotionalism entirely appropriate to the piece.