"Maria Stuarda", the tragedy of the Stuart Queen Mary and her embittered
foe Elizabeth, is the most popular work in Donizetti's trilogy of bel
canto operas on Tudor queens (next to "Anna Bolena" and "Roberto
Devereux"). In Donizetti's version, the two women fight less over power
than over the love of a man, the Earl of Leicester. Among the highlights
of this bel canto masterpiece are the dialogue of the two queens in
Act II, the duet between Mary and Talbot in Act III, and Mary's dramatic
aria before her execution.
The production of Venice's Teatro La Fenice shows Maria and Elisabetta
both as prisoners, trapped in a labyrinth that is the central set element
in Italian-based Franco-Tunisian director Denis Krief's staging. While
Maria is Elisabetta's prisoner, Elisabetta, too, "is anything but free,
caught as she is in Maria's psychological net" (Denis Krief). With his
sharp and lively conducting, Fabrizio Maria Carminati puts the Orchestra
of the Teatro La Fenice entirely at the service of three exceptional
singers, Sonia Ganassi ("an extraordinary performance," Opera Today) as
Elisabetta, Fiorenza Cedolins ("colorful, nuanced, highly dramatic
heroine," Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) as Maria Stuarda, and José Bros
as a passionate Leicester. The recording was made at Venice's beautiful
Teatro La Fenice, rebuilt after the fire that destroyed it in 1996.
