Famed as Donizetti’s greatest flop after its premier in Venice in 1838, Maria de Rudenz is given a rare production by Gothic Opera at Battersea Arts Centre in South London. It is staged in the atmospheric Grand Hall at BAC which proves to be a fitting setting for this flawed but fascinating piece of high romantic horror. The story is drawn from the scandalous novel “The Monk” by M G Lewis and tells a story of betrayal, revenge, murder and the supernatural – it was Halloween when I saw this production and that seemed very appropriate.
Maria has been absent from Rudenz for five years and is presumed dead. She returns to find Corrado, the man who had abused and abandoned her, about to marry her cousin and heir, Matilde. Maria is torn between her continuing love for the man who betrayed her and her determination to have her revenge if he does not take her back. Corrado’s brother Enrico is also in love with Matilde and Maria tries to enlist his help in separating Corrado from his bride-to-be. After a climactic scene in which Corrado almost succumbs to Maria’s pleas but then rejects her and stabs her, a dying Maria carries out her threats, kills Matilde (off stage) and then dies in the arms of her abuser.
There are two casts alternating for the four planned performances. At the first performance, Daniella Sicari sang Maria and Theo Perry sang Corrado – both were formidable, both musically and dramatically. Sicari, in particular, presented a fierce and tormented figure in her black robes and sang with real power and with a lustrous sheen in her top notes. Perry was absolutely not the ‘cardboard cut-out’ villain and, in his confrontations with Maria in the second act, conveyed in voice and gesture the struggles of conscience and desire that afflicted him. Alice Usher was a fine Matilde, effectively portraying the torment as her fortunes changed. James Beddoe as Enrico was a convincing Enrico in the first act but rather ran out of steam in the second.
Anna Castro Grinstein was a lively figure in front of the small chamber orchestra but the balance between the huge Grand Hall organ and the small group of instrumentalists was not always ideal. The small chorus sang the short orchestral passages with power but seemed rather static given the space available on the large stage. Director Lysanne Van Overbeek found some inventive ways to portray the central conflict between Maria and Corrado – the sinister portrait at the back of the stage had a life of its own – but the sub-plot sections were less effective. Perhaps this is explained by the clunky libretto (condemned by Donizetti at the time) which leaves huge holes in the story that are never explained. Is Enrico the brother of Corrado, or not?
Even so the music and the performances made this a show well worth watching, and made a musical case for one of Donizetti’s less celebrated operas – he wrote 75 in all. London is blessed with a number of smaller opera companies with a passion for less well known works – Gothic Opera has a proud place in this group.
Composer: Gaetano Donizetti
Libretto: Salvadore Cammarano
Director: Lysanne Van Overbeek
Conductor: Anna Castro Grinstein
Performers incl: Daniella Sicari, Theo Perry, James Beddoe, Alice Usher
Running time: 2 hours 45 minutes
Dates: until 2 November 2024
Photographs: Craig Fuller