Review: Donizetti: Lucrezia Borgia ***
With the highly attractive Mary Plazas as the mother, Lucrezia Borgia, looking younger than her stage son, this new Buxton Festival production only adds to the incongruity of the original story in a Donizetti opera that teeters on the edge of the repertoire.
Directed by Stephen Medcalf, it has been updated to the mid-part of the 20th century, removing any traces of historic reality in the fabled and dreaded Borgia family who killed anyone who happened to get in their way. Largely a static opera, it heavily depends on the singer in the role of Lucrezia, a prior announcement of Plazas's voice not being in good health leaving her to cut back on dramatic outbursts until we reached the final cabaletta when she did everything possible to give the work its virtuoso ending on this opening night.
The American tenor, John Bellemer, making his UK debut, was vocally persuasive as her hero son, Gennaro, the part in the opera that is so unbelievable, while David Soar suitably smouldered as the supposedly wronged husband. The remainder of the cast list is capable, and the excellent Northern Chamber Orchestra make the seldom performed score well-worth hearing.
Buxton Opera House
Further performances on July 25 and 28.
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Thursday 09 February 2012
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