Donizetti - Maria Stuarda (Maurizio Benini, Joyce DiDonato, Matthew Polenzani)

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Donizetti - Maria Stuarda (Maurizio Benini, Joyce DiDonato, Matthew Polenzani)

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The Met's belated foray into the complete Donizetti "Tudor trilogy" began inauspiciously in 2011 with a season-opening David McVicar production of ANNA BOLENA showcasing Anna Netrebko. Hobbled out of the gate by the pregnancy-necessitated withdrawal of mezzo Elīna Garanča (whose Jane Seymour had been the best thing about a recent-past production from Vienna, now on DVD), it was further undermined by an Anna whose temperament only partially compensated for a smudgy florid technique and a big lyric rather than truly dramatic voice, hoarsening toward the end of the work's two long acts. The director, too, was largely unsuccessful in his attempts to make a long and oft-static work dynamic, and costume and set designs were notably dreary. The prospect of a new MARIA STUARDA the following season helmed by the same director did not inspire great enthusiasm, but this was as much a hit as the BOLENA had been a miss, and a standout of the 2012-13 season.

Joyce DiDonato at the time of this writing is the sort of singer one is encouraged to see and hear in anything. She chooses her assignments wisely; she seems incapable of giving a performance that is less than meticulously and intelligently prepared; she has a brilliant technical facility, and she has an appealing and ingratiating personality that she takes with her on the stage, whether she is Cenerentola, the Composer, Sycorax, or Maria Stuarda. There were some complaints when it was announced that the music here was lowered slightly to accommodate a mezzo-soprano heroine, but most listeners will not be following with a score, and I cannot imagine that Donizetti (who lived in a time when composers countenanced far greater liberties) would have been anything other than thrilled with her assumption… By Todd Kay

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Donizetti - Maria Stuarda (Maurizio Benini, Joyce DiDonato, Matthew Polenzani)

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