Two minutes into Welsh National Opera’s new production of Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux, a ripple of laughter ran through the audience. Donizetti, you see, begins the overture with an elegantly Italianised version of God Save The Queen. What follows is one of the most delightfully splashy of all Italian opera overtures – conducted here with exuberant flair by Christian Capocaccia, in his WNO debut.
And it softened us up for what was to follow, as the curtain rose on the same bleak sets and monochrome costumes with which director Alessandro Talevi and designer Madeleine Boyd had drained all sense of theatre from Anna Bolena. True, Donizetti’s fizzy idiom can be a challenge for modern listeners, at any rate in a tragedy. Talevi’s solution in Anna Bolena had been to drown the whole piece in gloom.
Roberto Devereux fared better: not least because of four superb central performances. As Roberto, Leonardo Capalbo was charismatic and sweet-toned, while still suggesting a would-be hero far out of his depth. Leah-Marian Jones as his lover Sara conveyed an affecting vulnerability. But as her wronged and finally vengeful husband, company regular David Kempster was a tremendous presence – surpassed only by Alexandra Deshorties as a ferocious, gothic Elizabeth I, whose powerful voice curdled and cracked as she faced the extent of her betrayal.
Whether because of or despite Talevi’s direction, this was an ensemble you could believe in, with characters who appeared plausibly human. And as for the moment when Elizabeth mounted a sort of steampunk mechanical spider and Talevi’s vision boiled over into outright camp, you could say this much: at least – and at last – he was putting on a show.
