Sophie Silkes

 As a broke college student, attending an opera can be jarring and strange: spectators are dressed to the nines, songs are sung in languages most of us don’t understand, actors are wearing over-the-top costumes, and melodramatic stories are being unfurled before us. But if you suspend your cynicism, if only for a couple hours, then what you will discover is an unabashed world of aesthetic delight that thankfully didn’t get left behind in the Romantic period.

And that’s just what happened on Saturday night, when the Opéra de Montreal opened its latest play, Gaetano Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux. A whirlwind of colour and orchestral sound, the play began with an overture that included “God save the Queen,” signalling its main subject: Queen Elizabeth I.

An opera in three acts, Roberto Devereux tells the story of a love quadrangle involving the Queen, her favourite, Roberto Devereux Earl of Essex, his lover, the Duchess Sarah, and her husband, the Duke of Nottingham. Written in 1837 as part of a series of Tudor dramas, the opera covers one period in the life of Elizabeth I—arguably one of the most studied monarchs in European history. Although Elizabeth isn’t the opera’s title character, it’s her jealousy, rage, and ultimate revenge that drive the play’s action and lyrical focus.

Like most operas, Devereux is not a history in song, but a highly romanticized and dramatized take on a quasi-historical moment. Robert and Sarah are lovers, but when Robert goes to fight in Ireland—where, historically, he staged a coup against the crown and failed to quell the Irish “rebels”—the Queen forces Sarah to marry Nottingham. When Robert returns, Elizabeth is willing to forget his treachery if he admits that he loves her, an exchange that is explored through a dramatic recitative in which Elizabeth belts “Are you in love?” and he answers with a solemn “No.”

To add fuel to the flame, Elizabeth gives Robert one more chance to save himself from the gallows—where he’s been sent for treason to the Queen on two accounts—by naming his secret lover, which he gallantly refuses to do. Meanwhile, Nottingham, looking to exact revenge on Robert on behalf of his wife, declares in a rich, powerful baritone, “Blood I wanted, and blood I got!” Although Elizabeth is outraged by Robert’s infidelity and treason, the play ends with her inner torture at the thought of her dead lover. Her powerful final aria, “Vivi Ingrato” (“Ingrateful Life”) exposes at once her anger and deep remorse.

It’s interesting to note the importance Donizetti attributed to the character of Robert, as he’s neither the title character of the story on which the opera was based—Francois Ancelot’s Elisabeth d’Angleterre—nor even the central figure in the opera itself. Yet Russian tenor Alexey Dolgov justifies his status as the title character, as it was his soaring tenor that carried the play. Although Robert has technically done what any woman—even one without the power to declare a death sentence—would call sleazy, he manages to maintain the sympathy of the audience with his exquisite vocals and powerful stage presence.

A rarely staged opera, Devereux is still considered a masterpiece of the bel canto style—one that features the prima donna soprano and the virtuoso tenor, as opposed to the extinct castrato. Greek soprano Dimitra Theodossiou, who plays Elizabeth, captures the stage presence and dramatic flair characteristic of the domineering Queen. However, often singing shrilly and unpleasantly, she proves that she’s no diva. American mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Batton, who plays Sarah, can’t sing like a prima donna either, but the scenes between her and Robert are stirring and poignant.

If you’re not for the singing, go to the opera for the vibrant costumes and the elaborate set designs. In one scene between Sarah and Robert, Elizabeth suddenly looms over the lovers like a judge at his lectern. Although her presence is meant to be metaphorical, it was a brilliant move on the part of the director, evoking not only Elizabeth’s power over the relationship but her status as a stand-in for England itself.

Roberto Devereux has all the components of a great opera—love, lust, and betrayal—and serves as a reminder of a powerful and compelling art form that is rarely appreciated by today’s youth.  

Roberto Devereux is playing at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, Place des Arts on Nov. 17, 20, 22, and 25. For more information call 514-842-2112 or go to operademontreal.com