Donizetti's final opera, Dom Sébastien, is of great importance both historically and biographically.
For over a century and a half, music historians dismissed it as a disorderly and inferior product of the composer's madness during the final few years of his life (the illness was brought on by syphilis; he was committed to an asylum and died at the age of fifty).
But that just won't do. As Jeremy Commons' extremely impressive and authoritative essay in the booklet accompanying Opera Rara's new recording demonstrates, the composer was fit and well through almost the entire compositional process. He diplomatically handled his somewhat autocratic librettist, Scribe, despite the latter's attempts to change the text after Donizetti had set it to music; and he managed to successfully deliver what was by far the most complex, extensive and grand opera (it spans five acts and includes a lengthy ballet) of his entire career whilst writing or revising between three and five other operas during the same year. Despite reports of some fits of temper and initial psychological imbalance in the very closing stages of composition - though frankly, who wouldn't be a bit stressed in the middle of writing for the Paris Opéra at the time of its domination of the opera world? - all the evidence shows that Donizetti really knew what he was doing when approaching this piece.
The work itself is the greatest testament to that fact. There is a sense of structure to the opera; the great funeral march of Act Three is anticipated in the prelude to Act One as a method of setting the sombre tone of the entire piece, for instance. Yet for me, the fascination of the score is the fact that here is Donizetti creating his biggest, boldest and most daring opera to date when writing an opera about the Inquisition for Paris - and facing exactly the same challenges that Verdi would encounter when composing Don Carlos, which was his biggest opera, dealt with a similar historical subject and was intended for the same opera house. The parallel is remarkable. And even more remarkable is the fact that both Donizetti and Verdi blended conventions of French grand opera with the Italian style that was inherent to both of them as a means of resolving their natural style and that of the house for which they were writing.
Mark Elder emerges as the hero of this new recording, which is based on two live concert performances of the work at the opening of the Royal Opera's season in September 2005 (the ballet music was recorded separately at Cadogan Hall). He draws from the score both the French sensuality and the Italian thrust; bloodletting, intrigues, romance and executions are all perfectly evoked with the help of the Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House at their most dazzling. He even manages to make the rather abrupt ending (one of the work's major flaws) sound logical and integrated, and, as ever, proves the ideal accompanist to singers. And at last, we can appreciate Donizetti as a fine orchestrator.
Giuseppe Filianoti is perfectly cast in the title role. Donizetti tailored the role for a tenor who was charismatic and able to communicate a range of emotions but was no longer able to perform a string of coloratura arias; instead, he poured all the character's feelings into one big aria in Act Two and gives him a more narrative role elsewhere. Filianoti fits the bill with ease, singing with Italianate beauty through most of his part.
The stand-out performance, though, is from Simon Keenlyside, whose charisma, sense of text and sheer vocal beauty are impeccable. Vesselina Kasarova comes across considerably better in the recording than she did in the concerts, where I found her under-projected. As the only female character in the piece, Zayda, she excels in adding some much-needed vocal contrast and copes with the wide tessitura superbly. Equally convincing are the solid contributions of Carmelo Corrado Caruso as Camoëns, ex-Royal Opera Young Artist Robert Gleadow (in commanding voice) as Dom Henrique and particularly Alastair Miles as the chilling Grand Inquisitor, Dom Juam de Sylva.
Perhaps the heroine in all of this is Mary Ann Smart, who pieced together the work for the critical Donizetti edition and allowed it to be presented in its entirety for the first time in many years. Without doubt, the clarity of her text is partly what enabled Elder to create such a compelling performance for this indispensable recording (the best opera recording of the year?).