Unlike familiar retellings of the life of Mary Stuart by Schiller and Donizetti (amongst others), which recount her trial and execution, Saverio Mercadante's Maria Stuarda, regina di Scozia deals with an earlier period of her life when she was trying to maintain the crown amidst local squabbles with members of the Scottish aristocracy. The opera tells a bizarre story, it is true; who on earth are Olfredo, Earl of Lennox, Ormondo, Prince of the royal blood, and Carlo, Commander of the royal guards? These figures of fiction are nothing more than stock characters. But Mercadante rises above the historical eccentricities of his anonymous librettist to provide music that is a sheer delight from start to finish in this new disc from the ever-committed Opera Rara.
The Essential Opera Rara series deserves praise and support for the way it is unearthing operatic treasures of the nineteenth century and recording the highlights, thereby allowing us to reassess the history of opera in that period. Mercadante, who wrote between fifty and sixty operas, was a contemporary of Rossini, Meyerbeer and Halevy and eventually took on board various of their developments in opera to create pieces which prioritised drama over vocal conventions. Maria Stuarda was one of his earliest compositions for the stage, however, and his provision of opportunities for the voice to shine is all to the listener's benefit (even if the plot is a little underdeveloped and scarcely motivated at times).
The first track is an exciting big concertato in which Ormondo calls together his men. The chorus pulses along in the background as he, Carlo and Ferrondo stir them up into revolt, and the effect of a high piccolo line and rising chromatic tension is reminiscent of Rossini at his most effective. Colin Lee is in splendid, resonant voice here as Ormondo, while Manuela Custer (Carlo) and Pauls Putnins (Ferrondo) are lively and sharply characterised as his co-conspirators.
The next selection is an inspired duet for female voices with choral punctuations. The two stars of the recording are immediately apparent: Jennifer Larmore's Olfredo, Earl of Lennox (a trouser role), is dazzling, her coloratura as dexterous as ever, while Judith Haworth's reputation as a dramatic soprano will surely grow after her vivid portrayal of the troubled queen. Mezzo-soprano Manuela Custer excels in the opera's other trouser role, Carlo, giving a searching rendition of her psychologically intense aria about the conflicts of love, duty and friendship (reminiscent of Rossini's Tancredi in its taxing ornamentation and florid writing).
Both the quintet and finale of Act One demonstrate a composer well in control of his vocal and instrumental forces, while Stuarda's sad little aria with a violin solo (beautifully played by James Clark) gives way to a thrilling cabaletta with chorus. There's a marvellous sense of cadence in the second of three duets between female singers, this one involving a bitter conversation between Stuarda and Carlo in Act Two, and Larmore once more provides the thrills in her scena ed aria of the same act.
In all, this is extremely exciting stuff, recorded with clarity, played and conducted with commitment by the Philharmonia and Antonello Allemandi and sung with passion by an all-star cast. At a very reasonable price for so lavishly-packaged a disc, how can you resist?