Rossini - La donna del lago (Buxton, 2022)

Giacomo Rossini - La donna del lago

Buxton International Festival, 2022

Giulio Cilona, Jacopo Spirei, Máire Flavin, Catherine Carby, Nico Darmanin, David Ireland, John Irvin, Fiona Finsbury, Robert Lewis, William Searle

Buxton Opera House - 17th July 2022

La donna del lago is an irresistible Rossini opera; filled with stirring melodies and rousing choruses, it's no wonder that it's one of the lesser-known Rossini opera to get revived more regularly. The problem with this particular opera - and it has to be said a lot of early Rossini operas - is that it largely resists any attempts at modernisation. The Buxton International Festival production, as is often the case when trying to revive older and more problematic works like this, settles for a kind of half-way house between retaining fidelity to the original but adding a little modernisation in how the work is framed.

That was indeed the approach taken to the last production I saw of this opera directed by John Fulljames at the Royal Opera House in 2013. It took the approach of viewing it as an historical artefact, a museum piece preserved in amber more or less, a fantastic relic of the past that can be brought out, polished up and admired for its craft. There is a similar approach taken here in Buxton, where the set is not by a lake in the Scottish Highlands but on the site of some ancient ruin that is being excavated by archeologists. The archeologist in charge of the dig finds an object, a model of a boat, and this seems to set off her imagination at the story that might lie behind it, becoming a minor character in the drama - Albina - an observer to what takes place when King James returns to Scotland incognito and encounters Elena, 'the lady of the lake'.

Based on what we see here, I would have my doubts about the lead archeologist's qualifications, but then Rossini's librettist Andrea Leone Tottola wasn't too concerned about historical accuracy of the era of King James V. Jacopo Spirei, the director for the Buxton production, doesn't see any value either in making this an accurate reflection of the Scottish highlands in the 16th century, and rather than making it contemporary, even seems to push it back much further. There are no kilts, but rather the robes worn look like something from antiquity or Roman times that you would expect to see in Semiramide, Mosè in Egitto or Aureliano in Palmira.

It doesn't really matter, and in fact it makes sense to play it out as a timeless romantic fantasy, as essentially that's what Rossini's opera does with Walter Scott's epic poem. Accepting it on those terms is easy and the first half of the Buxton production played out well enough, but without there being anything significant in the way of a plot in this opera, or any real input provided to make it connect meaningfully with a contemporary audience, it felt like there was something missing. I'm not sure exactly what was missing - there still wasn't anything to make you really understand or care about what the characters were going through - but there were a few subtle changes applied in the second half of the performance after the interval that seemed to contribute it.

For one thing, the framing device changed in the second act. The foreground of the excavation site remained the same but the background changed, the dig now relocated intact to a museum where the archeologist is being congratulated on her discovery and successful transfer to the museum. With the archeologist slipping between present and past as Albina, it's evidently a way of bringing the past into the present and reconnecting with it, but there is maybe even a little more than that. As Elena arrives at the court of King James, the king and his retinue in black and silver look more futuristic, so in a way it's also trying to look beyond the narrative. It doesn't seem like much, but it did seem to make a difference.

What really made the difference in Act II is how the music and performances stepped up a level. Rossini is primarily responsible for that of course with his marvellous score, but it needs a suitable orchestral drive and urgency and that was in place in Giulio Cilona's conducting of the Northern Chamber Orchestra. The singing too helped push this one convincingly over the line. Initially the strongest performances came from John Irvin as Rodrigo and Nico Darmanin as Uberto/Giacomo (King James), each of the tenors hitting those high Cs squarely, while David Ireland gave an authoritative delivery as Elena's father Duglas. Máire Flavin was excellent as Elena, weaker on recitative but capable of fiery delivery. She really came into her own however in the final act where, in combination with Rossini's finales and the orchestral drive, she really made an impact.

La donna del lago still remains a curiosity despite Spirei's efforts and the fine singing. Composed in 1819, the opera retains some elements of opera seria, most notably in the self-absorbed arias - Malcom's Act I aria in particular - and in the notion of a divisive ruler who eventually sees the error of his ways and offers clemency to all, reuniting lovers, reconciling children with parents. but you can already see some of the developments that would lead to early Verdi. That can even be a reading of the work, taking the past and incorporating it into the present to bring about change, as Verdi would similarly deal with subjects of conflict between parents and children, between love and duty, in his own way. 

Another reading that seems to be applied here is where Elena assumes some measure of power, walking up to the throne at the conclusion, gaining power over her own decisions if not exactly overthrowing the King of Scotland. It's not something that is obvious or made explicit in the opera, but it does have the kind of impact that gives it a little more purpose in the absence of any kind of convincing plot. It wasn't anything revelatory and didn't have any great ideas about how to present a work stepped in old-fashioned 19th century romantic sentiments and operatic delivery, but the Buxton Festival production nonetheless made a convincing case that La donna del lago as an opera still worth revisiting.

Links: Buxton International Festival

Rossini - La Donna del Lago (Royal Opera House, 2013)

Giacomo Rossini - La Donna del Lago 

Royal Opera House, London 2013

Michele Mariotti, John Fulljames, Joyce DiDonato, Juan Diego Flórez, Daniela Barcellona, Simón Orfila, Colin Lee, Justina Gringyte, Robin Leggate, Christopher Lackner, Paolo Bemsch

Sky Arts 2

An awful lot of critics got terribly hung up about the framing structure that director John Fulljames imposed on top of the already bewildering plot of Rossini's La Donna del Lago, but really it's neither here nor there. I'm not sure that anything could clarify the intricacies of the opera's plot or render it meaningful. What really matters in La Donna del Lago is the presentation of Rossini's marvellous score and whether the staging allows the singers to deliver the full lyrical content of the work. The Royal Opera House's production unfailingly and emphatically does just that.

It's clear that much of the historical context of Walter Scott's original verse drama set in the Scottish Highlands has already been reduced to functioning merely as a colourful backdrop for a romantic love triangle - as it often is in bel canto operas - so any efforts to reinsert political or cultural context is not going to add much to the work and is probably going to be lost on the viewer. Opening in what looks like a museum, with Elena frozen in a glass display case, it's certainly not obvious to a viewer who doesn't have an explanatory programme in front of them why two of the character Serano and Albina have been recast as museum attendants. It's by no means obvious either that they are meant to represent the original author Walter Scott and Rossini, but whether you know this or not doesn't seem to matter much.

Even if the whole operatic fashion for adapting the works of Walter Scott and the Highlands (see Donizetti's Lucia de Lammermoor for another example) might seem unfathomable to tastes today, there is a recognition in this setting that the dramatisation of history can still speak to us across the ages, and that opera has a special way of breathing life into the characters and personalities in the past. At the most basic level, if you want to view the intent of Royal Opera House as merely a suggestion that La Donna del Lago itself is a museum piece, taken out of its case, dusted down and presented to a modern audience to admire its beauty, that's an adequate way to approach the work. La Donna del Lago is an object of considerable beauty, one that certainly still has something to give to an audience.

Although you could say the same for at least a dozen of his operas, La Donna del Lago is one of Rossini's most underrated, or at least underperformed works. What's different about this one is that there is a genuine effort by the composer to break away from the format of opera as a series of linked numbers and set-pieces in order to find a more through-composed response to the lyric qualities of Scott's verse. Much of the rhythm of La Donna del Lago adheres to the familiar Rossini fast-slow-fast-faster-slow arrangements, but this is one work where the music is more dramatically attuned to the high-flown romantic and patriotic sentiments of the work.

Often working at a breakneck pace to tight deadlines, Rossini wasn't beyond reusing melodies from other operas and even applying them to settings that they weren't originally composed to suit, but all the music in La Donna del Lago is original, tailored specifically for this work and - as far as I know - never reused elsewhere. More than that, the music, even by Rossini's standards, contains some of the composer's most beautiful melodies that weave in and out through the whole work in various guises and speeds. It's clearly of a whole, ebbing and flow, swirling to the demands of the drama and the emotional content.

Admittedly however, the quality of the drama itself in La Donna del Lago is questionable. Even after watching the work and then reading the synopsis, I still can't figure out what kind of political allegiances and enmities underpin its Highland drama and setting. It's not hard however to recognise that the usual bel canto conventions for a romantic love-triangle, with hidden or lost identities, sometimes revealing mystery figures to be members of royalty in disguise. Is there any more depth to the work than this? Perhaps a director like Graham Vick could reinterpret it for a modern audience, but John Fulljames relies just on the post-modern framing device and then lets the music and the singing speak for itself. It works because on that level alone, this is an impressive piece of unquestionable quality.

Criticisms of the stage production aside and recognising that the drama is rather confusing, the critics didn't however fail to notice where those qualities lie. And it would be hard not to when the Royal Opera House production has two of the finest singers in the world in this repertoire on the stage - Joyce DiDonato and Juan Diego Flórez. DiDonato is simply stunning here as Elena. I don't think she has any serious competitors within this repertoire at the moment. Her technique is impressive, her phrasing beautiful, the sentiments expressed with force, delicacy and nuance. It's an utterly flawless and compelling performance that sends shivers down the spine.

Flórez also knows no equal in the bel canto tenor repertoire, at least within the lighter and comic end of the range. Dramatic Rossini is more of a challenge, but he's just as impressive here. It's been noted that his voice is changing and perhaps darkening, but he can still hit all the high notes without any apparent effort. Daniela Barcellona is clearly carving a niche for herself in the specialised contralto Rossini trouser roles, and is simply fabulous here as Malcolm. These are all roles that are highly challenging to sing and dramatise, but critical to the success of the work in terms of making the opera really come alive and you couldn't ask for a better cast more capable of making that work. Other than perhaps asking for the other roles to be filled with strong singers, and that's what we get here, with Colin Lee in particular deserving a mention as Rodrigo.

The musical direction is also vital for La Donna del Lago and Michele Mariotti takes charge of the orchestra of the Royal Opera House to deliver much of the beauty of the work. I've heard a recording of the 2012 La Scala production, which features much of the same cast and was originally scheduled to transfer directly over to the Royal Opera House. It's conducted there by Roberto Abbado in a rather more pacy, enthusiastic and more idiomatic Rossinian manner, while here it is a little more restrained. Even so, the full force of the work and its stunning conclusion come over tremendously well. Whether La Donna del Lago would be half as good or even work at all without a singer of calibre Joyce DiDonato is debatable, but with the right singers, this shows just how good Rossini can be.