Donizetti - Gemma di Vergy (Roberto Rizzi Brignoli) [2013]

Donizetti was, of course, a major beneficiary of the postwar revival of Italian bel canto operas of the early 19th century, which put a premium on vocal beauty and display. In the years since Maria Callas took on work like “Lucia di Lammermoor” and “Anna Bolena,” Donizetti’s 70 operas became the subject of such keen interest that nowadays there remain no undiscovered gems waiting for their first glimpse of daylight in modern times. Yet the situation can easily seem otherwise when a neglected opera like “Gemma di Vergy,” which opened the festival this year, takes to the stage in a revelation.
Donizetti’s operas are indeed formulaic, yet, time and again, formulas are transcended in the theater as works of genuine dramatic power exert their grip. So it was with “Gemma di Vergy,” which like a number of the composer’s other operas has a tragic heroine at its center and climaxes in a shattering closing scene.
Based on an obscure play by Alexandre Dumas, père, “Gemma di Vergy” is that rare opera — Verdi’s “Stiffelio” is another — to deal with divorce.
In early 15th-century France, at the end of the Hundred Years’ War, the Count of Vergy has obtained an annulment of his marriage to Gemma because they have been unable to have children. Devastated, Gemma reacts with an almost Medea-like intensity, at one point threatening the Count’s intended new bride with a knife, and later, because the church sanctions her husband’s actions, venting quasi-blasphemous sentiment.
One reason “Gemma,” which has a libretto by Emanuele Bidera, is not better known may lie with the character of Tamas, Gemma’s Arab slave, who is secretly in love with her and loyal to a fault. In another similarity to the Medea story, Tamas is allowed to remain at the Count’s court despite his known predilection for violence — a time bomb waiting to go off. Inevitably — if implausibly — he murders the Count during the latter’s wedding ceremony, motivated by the grief the Count has caused Gemma. The implicit association of Tamas’s violent tendencies with his racial background will not set well with modern sensibilities.
Another reason for the opera’s obscurity is that Gemma is “perhaps vocally the most daunting role Donizetti ever composed for a soprano,” says the New Grove Dictionary of Opera. Montserrat Caballé, its first modern proponent, who sang it on several stages in the 1970s, reportedly called it the equal of three Normas, the highly challenging title heroine of Bellini’s opera. “Gemma” remained popular for decades after its 1834 premiere in Milan at La Scala, where it enjoyed four more 19th-century productions, a record matched there only by “Lucrezia Borgia” among Donizetti’s operas.
Bergamo had an outstanding interpreter of the title role in 29-year-old Maria Agresta, whose full, iridescent soprano dealt handily with the music’s demands for bel canto gracefulness as well as for Verdi-like fervor, offering some beautiful pianissimos along the way. She made a tremendous impact in her multisectional final scene, in which Gemma sings of entering a convent, then reacts with horror to Tamas’s crime in a final cabaletta of despair.
In two respects, Ms. Agresta’s portrayal represented a greater achievement than Ms. Caballé’s, since the opera was performed uncut in accordance with a new edition by Livio Aragona based on the composer’s autograph. Nor were there the musical and verbal emendations Ms. Caballé was notorious for making.
The fine tenor Gregory Kunde sang intensely as Tamas, whose cry for liberty in an aria is said to have incited a demonstration at an early performance. Mario Cassi was competent as the Count but a stronger portrayal was needed to balance Ms. Agresta. Leonardo Galeazzi sang handsomely as the Count’s confidant Guido, who remains loyal to Gemma. With her flowing, silvery blond hair and otherwise striking appearance, Kremena Dilcheva, singing appealingly as the Count’s bride Ida, lent credence to the Count’s desire for a new mate.
The opera benefited from a tastefully levelheaded production by Laurent Gerber, who recently retired after 30 years as La Scala’s director of productions. Another Scala regular, Angelo Sala, designed the sets, which effectively depicted the Count’s Gothic castle with modernistic touches, like clear plastic pillars. Mr. Sala’s costumes were colorfully traditional, and distinguished Tamas from the others by clothing him in resplendent Middle Eastern garb, notwithstanding his long years of servitude in France.
The décor also relied on stylized representations of Italian paintings, including Paolo Uccello’s “Battle of San Romano,” which underscored the opera’s military dimension. In one unusual number incorporating diverse sentiments, Guido sings of Gemma’s plight while the chorus, ignoring him, eagerly reacts to news of French victories led by Joan of Arc.
The conductor Roberto Rizzi Brignoli drew fine performances from the festival’s orchestra and chorus and ensured the score unfolded with sweep and vigor.
There were only two performances of “Gemma di Vergy,” but the festival continues in October with another vintage Donizetti opera seria, “Maria di Rohan,” in which Mr. Kunde, following the lead of another tenor (Plácido Domingo), makes his debut as an opera conductor.
Bergamo uses the term “festival” loosely, since it also embraces the Teatro Donizetti’s other stage offerings, which include works by Piccinni, Puccini, Rossini and Tchaikovsky. But this “Gemma di Vergy” had a genuine festival air about it.

Performer:
Gemma - Maria Agresta
Tamas - Gregory Kunde
Conte di Vergy - Mario Cassi
Guido - Leonardo Galeazzi
Rolando - Dario Russo
Ida - Kremena Dilcheva
Orchestra e Coro del Bergamo Musica Festival Gaetano Donizetti
Conductor - Roberto Rizzi Brignoli