Гаэтано Доницетти: Мария Стюарт операсы

Opera by Gaetano Donizetti

Maria Stuarda (Mary Stuart) is a tragic opera (tragedia lirica), in two acts, by Gaetano Donizetti, to a libretto by Giuseppe Bardari, based on Andrea Maffei's translation of Friedrich Schiller's 1800 play Maria Stuart. The opera is one of a number of operas by Donizetti which deal with the Tudor period in English history, including Anna Bolena (named for Henry VIII's second wife, Anne Boleyn), Roberto Devereux (named for a putative lover of Queen Elizabeth I of England) and Il castello di Kenilworth. The lead female characters of the operas Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda, and Roberto Devereux are often referred to as the "Three Donizetti Queens". The story is loosely based on the lives of Mary, Queen of Scots (Mary Stuart) and her cousin Queen Elizabeth I. Schiller had invented the confrontation of the two Queens, who in fact never met. After a series of problems surrounding its presentation in Naples after the final dress rehearsal – including having to be re written for a totally different location, a different time period, and with Buondelmonte as its new title – Maria Stuarda as we know it today premiered on 30 December 1835 at La Scala in Milan.

Although there was an attempt to mount Maria Stuarda at La Scala in late 1834, it came to nothing and, finally, the opera was planned to be given on 28 December 1835 at La Scala, Milan with the famous mezzo soprano Maria Malibran (a singer who often sang soprano parts) in the title role. Donizetti "tailored that role" for her with "improved recitatives, and extended scenes". In addition, he created a new overture. The censor had approved the libretto, although Ashbrook speculates that some of the original wording had been changed to gain that approval. It was quickly clear that the audience disapproved, as did the authorities for different reasons because, instead of singing donna vile as the substitute language for vil bastarda ("vile bastard"), Malibran rejected the censor's revisions and sang the original words. Several better performed presentations later, the Milan censors clamped down, imposed conditions which Malibran would not accept, and she withdrew. Realizing the difficulties of a run in Italy, a London première was planned, but Malibran's death at the age of 28 in 1836 cancelled the project. Except for the several performances of the Buondelmonte version noted above, productions of Maria Stuarda were staged in Reggio Emilia and Modena (1837), in Ferrara and Malta (1839–40), in Florence, Ancona, Venice and Madrid (1840), Bologna (1841), Porto (1842), Granada, Málaga, and Barcelona plus Venice and Padua (1843), Lisbon (1844), and finally Pesaro (1844–45), all variously trimmed versions. Naples finally heard the opera in 1865,

By the late 1980s, after a critical edition was prepared from the autograph, what was revealed at that point was that Donizetti had re used a couple of numbers in La favorite, and that in post Favorite performances, starting with one in Naples in 1865, they had been replaced by different numbers from his other lesser known operas. The critical edition was first given in Bergamo in 1989 in a two act version. The opera has been given in a variety of European and North American locations in recent times, which begin to increasingly establish it as part of the standard repertoire. A production which was noted as "no longer a display piece for rival divas, nor does it maintain the simplistic view that the opera presents Mary as noble victim and Elizabeth as vengeful monster [but] here, the rival queens are both profoundly tragic, complex figures", was given by English Touring Opera in 2005 and Maria Stuarda was presented at both the Teater Vanemuine in Estonia and Pacific Opera in Victoria, B. C. during the 2011/12 season. Between 1 January 2011 and 31 December 2013, the opera has seen 86 performances of 18 productions in 16 cities, according to Operabase. Other US companies have presented some or all of the "Three Donizetti Queens" operas. Among them has been the Dallas Opera with both Anna Bolena and Maria Stuarda to date. The Minnesota Opera staged all three between 2009 and 2012. In April 2012, the Houston Grand Opera presented the Minnesota Opera's production of the work, but casting mezzo soprano Joyce DiDonato in the title role. (A mezzo singing the role is not uncommon today, as has been noted below.) She had sung the role of Elisabetta in Geneva in 2005 and, when the Metropolitan Opera gave Maria Stuarda in January/February 2013, it also starred DiDonato as Maria. As with Anna Bolena, which preceded it in 2011, this was the company's first staging of the work. Welsh National Opera presented all three of Donizetti's "Queens" operas throughout the UK from September to November 2013 This historic season was premiered in Cardiff then toured to venues in England and Wales in 2013.

Originally the roles of Maria and Elisabetta were written for sopranos. However, given the precedent of Malibran singing the role of Maria, many modern day productions, dating from the late 1950s onwards, cast a mezzo soprano as either Maria or Elisabetta. The role of Maria was written for Giuseppina Ronzi de Begnis, who sang the soprano roles of Donna Anna, in Don Giovanni, and Norma but also the mezzo soprano role of Rosina, in The Barber of Seville. After the King of Naples banned the opera when it was in rehearsal, it became Buondelmonte with one or other of the queens (probably Elisabetta) turned into the tenor title role and de Begnis singing a role called Bianca. Malibran (who sang Norma but also Leonore and Cenerentola and had a range of G3 E6) then decided that she wanted to sing Maria Stuarda, which she did until it was banned again. It was performed for a time subsequently in "sanitised" form and was eventually revived in 1958, still sanitised.

As musicologist and Donizetti expert William Ashbrook notes, in many respects the musical structure of the opera is fairly straightforward and follows many of the conventions of the day. For example, Elisabeth, Mary, and Leicester "are each given a "double aria" (a cantabile followed by a cabaletta) at their first appearances and Mary is also given one at the opera's end. However, the composer's strength lies in being able to tailor the framework to "a specific set of dramatic circumstances". Singled out is Maria's Oh nube! che lieve per l'aria t'aggiri ("Oh cloud, that wanders light upon the breeze") which appears in her entrance scene. Therefore, in the case of the soprano's entrance aria, Ashbrook observes:
As if to counteract [these dramatic limitations], through much of his composing life Donizetti worked to expand the expressive potential of duets. The broad spectrum of dramatic situations possible for duets appealed to his strong theatrical sense, and they came to occupy an increasingly important place in his designs. It is consistent with the rising tide of Romanticism in Italian opera during the 1830s and the growing emphasis on melodramatic elements that new prominence should be placed upon duets, especially those of confrontation. Examples occur in Anna Bolena and Maria Padilla, both of which precede this opera, but Ashbrook recognized at least two instances which evidence Donizetti's distinctive musical genius in Maria Stuarda. One is the Leicester Elizabeth duet (beginning with Leicester's Era d'amor l'immagine / "She was the picture of love") which appears before Maria's entrance and where Leicester pleads for Maria while Elizabeth's "ironic interjections provide a contrast of rhythmic emphasis and melodic pattern to the tenor's balanced lyric phrases". or, as another critic puts it, "so that the outrageous text is heard in shocking relief." Time: The year 1587.

YearCast(Maria, Elisabeta,Leicester, Talbot)Conductor,Opera House and OrchestraLabel 1967 Leyla Gencer,Shirley Verrett,Franco Tagliavini,Agostino Ferrin Francesco Molinari Pradelli,Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Orchestra e Chorus CD: Hunt ProductionsCat: HUNTCD 543 2(Live performance of 2 May 1967) 1971 Beverly Sills,Eileen Farrell,Stuart Burrows,Louis Quilico Aldo Ceccato,London Philharmonic Orchestra with John Alldis Choir CD: Deutsche GrammophonCat: 289 465961 2(Part of "3 Queens" box set) 1974/75 Joan Sutherland,Huguette Tourangeau,Luciano Pavarotti,Roger Soyer Richard Bonynge,Teatro Comunale di Bologna Orchestra and Chorus CD: DeccaCat:00289 425 4102 1982 Dame Janet Baker,Rosalind Plowright,David Rendall,Alan Opie, Angela Bostock, Charles Mackerras,English National Opera Orchestra and Chorus CD: ChandosCat: CHAN 3017(2) 1989 Edita Gruberová,Agnes Baltsa,Francisco Araiza,Simone Alaimo Giuseppe Patanè,Münchner Rundfunkorchester CD: PhillipsCat: 426233 2 2001 Carmela Remigio,Sonia Ganassi,Joseph Calleja,Riccardo Zanellato Fabrizio M. Carminati,Orchestra Stabile di Bergamo "G. Donizetti" DVD: DynamicCat:33407 2007 Maria Pia Piscitelli,Laura Polverelli,Roberto De Biasio,Simone Alberghini Riccardo Frizza,Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana DVD: NaxosCat: 2.110268 2008 Mariella Devia,Anna Caterina Antonacci,Francesco Meli,Simone Alberghini Antonino Fogliani,Teatro alla Scala orchestra and chorus DVD: ArtHaus MusikCat: 101 361CD: Premiere Opera Ltd,Cat: CDNO 2836 22015Joyce DiDonato,Elza van den Heever,Matthew Polenzani,Matthew RoseMaurizio Benini,Metropolitan Opera orchestra and chorusDVD:Erato RecordsCat:2564605475