Maria Stuarda opera review: 'Electrifying' top-class sopranos in monarch power struggle

Donizetti's opera Maria Stuarda has a history almost as dramatic as its tale of the bitter conflict between Mary Queen of Scots and Queen Elizabeth I. During rehearsals for its first performance in 1834, the two soprano queens had a furious argument which ended in a fist fight, then the King of Italy banned the whole opera, probably because he thought its portrayal of royalty was unseemly.

King Ferdinand never actually saw the opera or heard the music, but to judge by the performances in this new production at Covent Garden, he missed a great show.
The basic requirement for a good Maria Stuarda is two great sopranos and it is difficult to imagine any better suited to the role of the two queens than Carmen Giannattasio (Elizabeth) and Joyce DiDonato (Mary).

Donizetti always seemed to enjoy torturing his singers with almost impossibly demanding parts, exploring the full range of the voice with some passages demanding tonsil-tangling vocal gymnastics, but from the very start, Giannattasio took control of the music and the stage in truly imperious fashion as she pondered the problem of whether to have her sister's head lopped off.

Then the scene shifts to Fotheringay where Mary is imprisoned and Joyce DiDonato lifts the standard still higher. DiDonato has, over the past few years, established herself as one of the world's most gifted sopranos, but even for her this was a sensational performance. Her voice is a joy to listen to and her vocal control is astounding. When the two sopranos were on stage together, the effect was electrifying. Donizetti is often seen as a master of comic opera, but in Maria Stuarda, he showed that he can handle tragedy too - albeit in a musically rather jolly way.

The music is great, the singing is magnificent, and Bertrand de Billy's precise conducting brings out the best in the always excellent Covent Garden orchestra. So what can go wrong? The answer lies in the extraordinarily heavy-handed direction by Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier, abetted by set designs by Christian Fenouillat, Right from the start, we are treated to a bewildering piece of incongruity when the two queens appear in elaborate Elizabethan dresses (with a particularly uncomfortable looking farthingale for Elizabeth), while the crowd around them are all wearing grey suits.

According to the programme the production "mixes the iuconic historical figures of the two queens with contemporary characters in order to stress that the violence linked to power and desire remain constant in any period". The sea of grey suits seems a crass way to make such an obvious point, and in any case if such a thing needs explaining in the programme, then there is something wrong. Having Mary's execution chamber looking more like a dentist's surgery or NHS clinic just added to the anachronistic feel. With two directors, one would have thought that one of them would talk the other out of such nonsense.

At the final curtain, after rapturous applause for the lead singers, certain sections of the audience started booing when the directors came on. It is the job of a director to add to the effect of the music, not detract from it with silly anachronistic touches. Five stars for Carmen Giannattasio; five stars for Joyce DiDonato. Two stars for the directors. That averages out at four.

For tickets up until the last performance on July 18 visit roh.org.uk or ring 020 7304 4000