Lucrezia Borgia: a dark feast in Rome

Lucrezia Borgia has been missing from the stage of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma since 1980, when Dame Joan Sutherland sang the title role. Although Donizetti's opera is well known and has never really dropped out of the international repertoire since its 1833 premiere, it is also true that the work is not performed that often. The reason for this may well be double-sided: on one hand, the soprano and tenor roles are demanding; on the other, the libretto is not particularly strong so as to make the story stand out by itself, which in turn requires outstanding singers to compensate for it! 

Even the famous librettist, Felice Romani, confessed the difficulties he had in crafting the work, whose subject was taken from a play by Victor Hugo. He found it challenging transposing the complex character of Lucrezia as Hugo had depicted her, a cruel killer but with the tender heart of a mother. Hugo’s romantic aesthetic of the grotesque – the coexistence in human nature of good and bad, sublime and ugly – gets lost in translation here (unlike, for example, Piave's successful transposition of Hugo’s Le Roi s’amuse into Rigoletto). What triumphs in the opera, however, is Donizetti’s music.

Argentinian director Valentina Carrasco's contemporary new staging works very well. Carles Berga's set designs swing between the lightly descriptive and the symbolic, relying mostly on huge background drapes, red in the Prologue, black in Act 1 and an explosion of gold and light in Act 2. In the opening act, we see a room in the palace with an oversized period portrait of Lucrezia (by Bartolomeo Veneto), surrounded by candelabra. Marco Filibeck's lighting designs are highly effective and atmospheric. A mask theme is ever present, from a giant one hanging from the ceiling in the Prologue, to the masks on stage worn by the chorus and most of the characters, to symbolise all the intrigues of the plot. Silvia Aymonino's costumes present a modern-abstract style, mostly black, with colour used sparingly.

Roberto Abbado conducted the Orchestra del Teatro dell’Opera in a satisfying reading of Donizetti's score, with its interesting twists and turns. In the juxtaposition of opposing musical styles and moods – like the barcarolle of the second act alternating with a funeral march tune – and of the comical and tragic turns, we feel the influence of Mozart. How not to think of Don Giovanni? Also the use of the travesti for a young character (Maffio Orsini), rather unusual in a 19th-century opera, makes us think of Cherubino.

As Lucrezia, Lidia Fridman was superlative. A soprano with a dark timbre, she is particularly suited to the role. Seemingly, there is nothing she can't do with her voice. Her performance was perfect, her acting at one with her voice. Nothing was left to be desired.

With his bright and unfaltering tenor, Enea Scala was an equally perfect Gennaro. Bass-baritone Alex Esposito played a very good Alfonso. Mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack, en travesti as Maffio Orsini, distinguished herself with her confident stage presence and good singing, even if the role was actually written for a contralto. Her Act 2 duet with Scala was a highlight, as well as her barcarolle “Il segreto per essere felici”. All the many secondary characters (played by Arturo Espinosa, Alessio Verna, Eduardo Niave, Roberto Accurso, Enrico Casari, Rocco Cavalluzzi and Giuseppe Ruggiero) were on a par with the level of the production, although the use of the same colour for the costumes and masks didn’t help the audience to distinguish them apart. The Teatro dell’Opera Chorus is generally a safe bet, but on this occasion surpassed itself.

Lucrezia Borgia may not be a very relatable heroine and the libretto suffers from lack of punch, but this show was truly outstanding and created real (artistic!) emotion.