Nearly fifteen years after her last
appearance at Carnegie Hall – also with the Opera Orchestra of New York
in Donizetti’s rarely performed Adelia – Mariella Devia made
a thrilling, triumphant return in the same composer’s richly
dramatic Roberto Devereux last Thursday
evening. In a performance that surely astonished even the
most discerning listeners, Devia met every musical challenge with
honesty, an amazingly well preserved voice, and a good deal of
flair. In short, it was one of those rare nights in the
theater that will be remembered fondly for a lifetime.
Eve Queler established the Opera Orchestra of New York (OONY) and gave
the inaugural performance more than forty years ago, in
1972. Taken from the program: “The mission of The Opera
Orchestra of New York is to present high-quality performances of
seldom-heard operatic masterpieces in a concert setting featuring
internationally acclaimed stars and exceptional young
singers.” As shown on OONY’s website, their performance
history is impressive, with dozens of operatic rarities produced for a
loyal audience, eager to hear titles unknown to the Metropolitan Opera
and other New York classical venues. Unfortunately, like
many arts organizations across the globe, OONY has faced significant
and debilitating financial challenges in recent years, resulting in
major cutbacks in their performance schedule. Thus, this
performance of Roberto Devereux was their only
offering for the 2013-14 artistic season. Though not
‘perfect’, the performance elicited a thunderous ovation the likes of
which I have rarely experienced in thirty years of attending the
opera. It remains to be seen whether such vociferously
positive audience response will contribute to a push for renewed
financial health for this struggling organization.
Among the many reasons the planets seemed to align for this performance
was the choice of Devereux – a reasonably compact score brimming
with dramatic opportunities for the principal singers. Long
a favorite among bel canto specialists, Roberto
Devereux languished nearly unperformed for roughly a century until
its first modern revival in Naples (1964) with the great Turkish
soprano Leyla Gencer portraying Queen Elizabeth
I. Subsequently, and almost immediately, productions of the
opera began propagate throughout Europe and beyond. Many
great singers have been tempted by the music Donizetti wrote for
Elisabetta – by turns lyrical, vengeful, tender, and
powerful. In addition to Gencer, Montserrat Caballé and
Beverly Sills did much to advance the popularity of the opera - the
latter was especially influential with a studio recording made in 1969
and appearances as Elisabetta at the New York City Opera during the
early 1970’s. Since her remarkable debut as Elisabetta in
1990, the most important interpreter of the present day has been Slovak
soprano Edita Gruberovà, who, like Devia, continues to perform the role
well into her 60’s.
The score for Devereux is full of attractive melodies and
affords all of the four central characters ample opportunity to grab
the spotlight if the singers are capable of meeting Donizetti’s
significant vocal demands. It was the last of five operas
Donizetti composed for Italian soprano Giuseppina Ronzi de Begnis, a
gifted singer known throughout Europe for her assumptions of many of
the most difficult bel canto roles. According to the music
composed for Elisabetta, Ronzi must have had both a strong low register
and a flair for dramatic confrontations. At first glance,
neither of these attributes seems ideally suited to the strengths
offered by Mariella Devia who is known for the cool, crystalline
precision of her high register and carefully calculated approach to the
histrionic requirements of the roles she sings. Since making her
stage debut in the early 1970’s, Devia has been shrewd in the
management of her career, judiciously adding new roles to her
repertoire as her voice has aged and biding her time before assuming
heavier, more dramatic characters. Thus, it was only as she
neared age sixty that she agreed to perform such iconic roles as Norma,
Anna Bolena, and finally, Elisabetta. Now, at 66, Devia
surely can afford to take some vocal risks, and her portrayal of the
aging queen was rife with the poignancy of a personal connection to the
emotions of an aging monarch.
At her first appearance in Act 1, Devia was greeted with warm applause,
and as she began to sing, it became immediately apparent that her voice
is remarkably well preserved. It seems impolite to focus on
her age, but there can be no denying that voices falter as part of the
natural aging process for all singers. Contrary to this,
Devia has rather miraculously maintained absolutely steady tone,
excellent diction, reasonable fluidity in coloratura, and perfect
accuracy in pitch. These facets of her performance alone
would merit admiration, but she offered a fully developed
interpretation of the tormented queen that went well beyond merely
singing the notes. Rather than re-writing some of her music
in order to avoid the low-lying passages as other sopranos have done
(most notably, Sills), Devia sang the score as written, only varying
the vocal line on repeats of phrases in the bel canto
tradition. While the low register has always been the weakest part
of her voice, she showed remarkable fidelity to the score, despite
occasional moments of gravelly tone and being covered by the
orchestra. Rather than detracting from the performance,
these moments of vocal frailty actually added to the dignity and tragic
stature of her character.
One of the distinguishing aspects of Devia’s artistry is her uncanny
ability to stylishly ornament the vocal line with unique variations and
seeming spontaneity. Her abilities in this regard remain
undiminished, and she crafted ornaments that suited Elisabetta’s many
moods, from her initial excitement for Devereux’s return to court,
through suspicion and anger at his betrayal, and finally to brief
resignation followed by a descent into the near madness of
grief. Using the texts superbly, she fully inhabited the
emotional shifts of her mercurial character, allowing the movement and
colors of her voice to create a vibrant portrait of the heart-broken
queen. There were moments in the performance when the entire
audience was absolutely still – not producing the slightest noise – as
Devia spun out phrases with incredible breath control and long, arching
phrases. I will long remember these moments as being frozen
in time – snapshots held in my memory of one of the greatest bel canto
singers of the last half-century. When, at the very end of
her final, lurching cabaletta, Devia launched a stupendous, ringing
high D, the audience erupted – covering the final bars of orchestral
music and expanding into a roar of approval, among the loudest and
longest sustained I have ever witnessed in person. It was a
performance that will be long remembered in New York – one of those
“you had to be there” moments when a singer surpasses every expectation.
It hardly mattered, given the majesty of Devia’s contribution to the
event, but none of the remaining artists came close to reaching her
level of distinction. Mezzo-soprano Géraldine Chauvet sang
with handsome tone, but was miscast as the queen’s rival for Devereux’s
affections, Sara, the Duchess of Nottingham. The role has an
uncomfortably high tessitura for most modern-day mezzos, though some,
such as Shirley Verrett and Sonia Ganassi have made excellent
impressions in the part. Chauvet had to lunge unattractively
for the highest notes, and seemed generally uncomfortable all
evening. Most damagingly, she was glued to her score, rarely
looking up to take account of her fellow singers or the
conductor. Baritone David Pershall was excellent as the Duke
of Nottingham, though the role is one or two sizes too large for his
youthful, lyric voice. While he was not able to imbue the
role with an ideally authoritative timbre, his efforts toward
characterization and alert interaction with the others on stage were
admirable. Like Devia, his pitch was
impeccable. Among the secondary roles, bass Sama Vemic was
outstanding in his brief role as Sir Walter Raleigh, displaying a
large, dark voice that should surely guarantee a bright future in
leading roles. Bass-baritone André Courville and tenor John
Kapusta also made positive contributions in their small roles.
The only major disappointment of the evening was the performance by
tenor Stephen Costello, as Roberto Devereux. His singing
started out shaky – frequently off pitch, phrases awkwardly broken for
breaths, high notes lunged at, words nearly unintelligible – and never
improved. Rarely attempting to interact musically with his
colleagues, his stylistic approach had little to do with the basic
tenets of bel canto technique; his singing was disfigured by
monochromatic, nasal tone, obvious register shifts, and crass,
unattractive high notes. In addition, he brought little to
the stage in terms of characterization or emotion beyond slouching
posture and a look of utter hopelessness. Unfortunately, I
have noticed many of the poor vocal habits in Costello’s previous
performances, and so it doesn’t appear that he is working on improving
his technique or studying the correct style for bel canto opera.
As a conductor, Eve Queler has always been more ‘dutiful school marm’
than ‘inspired musician’ and this performance was no different: tempi
were often uninspired, and her attempts to follow the singers often
resulted in unsightly bulges in the vocal line. The chorus
sounded superb throughout, but the orchestra offered an astringent
mixture of wrong notes and botched entrances along with several lovely
woodwind solos. Appropriately, the juxtaposition of good
with bad fits aptly with the long OONY performance
tradition. Looking through their concert chronology, I have
attended approximately 35 OONY events over the years, and all of them
might have been improved in some way or another. Still, many
outstanding individual performances buoyed the reputation of this fine
organization, and hopefully, they will find the means to continue
producing concerts in future seasons. Queler and her forces
are owed a profound debt of gratitude for their many years of service,
and especially for providing the context for a return of reigning bel
canto queen Mariella Devia to New York. Judging by this
appearance, Devia should be able to give thrilling performances for
several more years. Let’s hope she comes back to Carnegie
Hall at least one more time.
Photo Credits: The Opera Orchestra of New York
