IRISH National Opera’s new production of Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda opens at the Gaiety Theatre this June which will be followed by a short Irish tour coming to University Concert Hall, Limerick on Wednesday June 22.
Maria Stuarda is an opera about Queen Elizabeth 1 who locked up her cousin Mary Queen of Scots and put her under house arrest.
Even the composer Donizetti added his own version of events to make the sparring aria between the two queens as super dramatic extra to the real life version – bringing out the full diva in the two characters to the extreme – sung / played out by Irish-international opera stars, Tara Erraught and Anna Devin.
The leading roles of the rival queens are taken by two Irish singers at the top of their form. Mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught, as Maria Stuarda herself, returns from starring in the title role of Massenet’s Cendrillon at the Opéra Bastille in Paris. Soprano Anna Devin, as Elisabetta, is currently engaged in performances of Handel’s Amadigi in Barcelona and Madrid, followed by a Stabat Mater through the ages tour with B’Rock Orchestra in Antwerp, Rouen and Gent.
The production reunites the director/designer team of Tom Creed and Katie Davenport, whose first INO collaboration on Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann in 2019 netted two nominations in The Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards, one for best opera, the other for best costumes.
INO artistic director Fergus Sheil, who conducts the production, says that what draws him to the work is “the presence of two towering and equally powerful characters – Mary Queen of Scots and Queen Elizabeth I of England. Both are regal, powerful, ruthless, charismatic and temperamental and yet both also harbour insecurities, doubts and human frailties. Two formidable queens that are cousins, rivals and ultimately enemies. Something of this scale is brilliantly suited to bel canto operas, where the duelling personalities of the two queens find endless scope in the opera’s soaring melodies, driving rhythms and gyrating vocal lines.”
“I fell under the spell of this opera,” he adds, “when I worked on it as chorus master at the 2001 Edinburgh International Festival, and I’ve harboured an ambition to bring it to the stage in Ireland ever since. But not until now have I found the right two queens available at the same time. Tara Erraught and Anna Devin both have the vocal brilliance and elegance for these imposing roles, not to mind their steely determination and charisma. I’m hoping they will behave themselves in rehearsals, but I expect sparks to fly in all directions in the performances.”
Also in the cast are Filipino-American tenor Arthur Espiritu as Roberto, the Earl of Leicester (advisor to Elisabetta but in love with Maria), Irish mezzo-soprano Gemma Ní Bhriain as Maria’s companion Anna Kennedy, Italian baritone Giorgio Caoduro as Lord Guglielmo Cecil, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and English bass CallumThorpe as Giorgio Talbot, the Earl of Shrewsbury.
Playing at University Concert Hall on Wednesday June 22 at 8pm.
Tickets: €37.50 /€34.50 concession from www.uch.ie
