The audience of the Teatro Real surrenders before the duel of queens in ‘Maria Stuarda’

This Saturday, December 14, the Teatro Real hosted the premiere of a new production of Maria Stuarda, by Gaetano Donizetti, an opera that narrates the duel between two queens, Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland, and Elizabeth I of England. This opera was premiered at the La Scala Theater in Milan on December 30, 1835.

‘Maria Stuarda’, with a libretto by Giuseppe Bardari, and under the musical direction of José Miguel Pérez-Sierra, has been supported with a six-minute ovation by the audience. Likewise, throughout the performance, which lasts 2 hours and 40 minutes, he received numerous applause and cheers.

Among other authorities, the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande Marlaska, the

president of the Madrid Assembly, Enrique Ossorio, the Secretary of State for Budgets and Expenditures, María José Gualda, the subdelegate of the Government in Madrid, Pilar Trinidad, or the ambassadors of Japan, Takahiro Nakamae, and of Mexico, Quirino Ordaz.

The opera narrates a duel of queens who fight for the same scepter and the same love, both victims of “political and religious forces” that manipulate their destinies since childhood.

At the end of the 16th century, when Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, was forced to renounce the throne and flee her kingdom after the rebellion of the Scottish nobles. Catholic, crowned at nine months, she was betrothed to the Dauphin of France and was raised from her childhood at the French court. At the age of 18, she returned to her homeland after the sudden death of her husband Francis II, having reigned on the French throne for just over a year.

Unable to exert control over the Scottish Protestant nobility and beset by insurrections, conspiracies and murders, she sought asylum in England with her cousin, Queen Elizabeth, but her presence in Protestant England was unsustainable for Elizabeth and her advisors.

As a descendant of the Tudor dynasty, English Catholics view Mary as the rightful heir to Henry VIII’s throne.

Starting from the homonymous work by Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805), far from the true story of the Scottish Catholic queen, for which he takes sides in relation to his Anglican rival, Donizetti created a score of great melodic flights and abrupt contrasts that It privileges the psychological profile of the protagonists, trapped by a suffocating web of dysfunctional and toxic relationships.

The stage director, David McVicar, who directs his sixth title at the Teatro Real, offers an intimate vision of the opera, which explores the complexity of the feelings and passions of the characters, characterized with Renaissance costumes designed by Brigitte Reiffenstuel.

McVicar places the action in a conceptual and symbolic space that gives all the prominence to the bel canto and highlights the conflicts, feelings and passions of the characters.

The set design is based on a drawing of a scene from the execution of Queen Mary I of Scotland made by Robert Beale, diplomat of Queen Elizabeth I. On the lines of this sketch stands a conceptual set, transforming the opera into the tragic path of the protagonist towards the scaffold as an inexorable destiny that underlies the entire plot.

In this symbolic decoration, conceived by set designer Hannah Postlethwaite, low reliefs of ears and eyes evoke the permanent state of surveillance, tension and alert; Bursts of shadows hint at spilled blood, or a forceful orb bursts forth with the implacable weight of political and religious power, inseparable in those times when England was fighting for its separation from the Roman curia.

The soprano Lisette Oropesa has been in charge of giving life to Maria Stuarda in the premiere at the Teatro Real and the mezzo-soprano Aigul Akhmetshina (in the role of Isabel I) and the tenor Ismael Jordi (as Roberto, count) have also been part of the cast. of Leicester). The singers have performed alongside the Teatro Real Choir and Orchestra, under the direction of José Miguel Pérez-Sierra.

10 performances of Maria Stuarda will be offered until December 30 at the Teatro Real and, subsequently, it will be presented at the co-producing theaters: the Gran Teatre del Liceu, the Donizetti Opera Festival in Bergamo, La Monnaie in Brussels and the Finnish National Opera .

In addition, Maria Stuarda will be recorded on December 20 and 23, directed by François Rousillon, in an audiovisual co-production by Teatro Real, FRAprod and ARTE France, with the participation of TVE and the support of the CNC. Its first broadcast will be in February 2025 on the ‘ARTE Concert’ web platform and will be presented later, also next year, on ARTE and TVE.