Destiny comes calling at Covent Garden

The story of Verdi’s La Forza del Destino is roughly this: a man’s father is killed by an accidental gunshot. He holds his sister and her foreign lover responsible, and vows revenge. The lovers part, and take sanctuary in religious devotion, only to be reunited at the end by the vengeful son’s implacable determination. This 1859 opera, based on a Spanish play by the Duke of Rivas, depicts a world where free will was subservient to God’s omnipotence — hence the title: “The Power of Destiny (or Fate)”. Fatalism was a powerful idea in Spain, as Sarah Lenton explains in an excellent programme essay, quoting a senior officer in the Spanish navy before the Armada set off, “we fight in God’s cause … and are sailing in the confident hope of a miracle”.

The Royal Opera’s production of La Forza del Destino was new in 2019, and the cast for this revival gave us a musical treat under the baton of Mark Elder, who drew superb and sensitive playing from the orchestra. You don’t go to this opera for the story but for the music, which is thrillingly mid-period Verdi, powerful and forward-moving. Yet the director, Christof Loy, helps our modern understanding of what is going on with a silent scene during the overture. We see a brother and sister growing up together, with him dominating her and showing a nasty streak. Everything is subservient to his own narcissism and later during the performance we see his weakness for the bottle. This drama is not so much about divine fate as single-minded human obsession, fuelled by addiction.

Despite starting at 6 pm and ending at 10 (including two intervals), this opera seemed to be over all too soon under the baton of Elder. Even the celebration of military life at the end of Act 3, which is sometimes cut, only added to the evening’s enjoyment, with its dancers and robust choreography. This was the musical of its day, and the production celebrates it for what it is.

The singing was flawless, with Sondra Radvanovsky exercising superb breath control and showing glorious top notes as the sister Leonora. Her brother Carlo was excellently sung by baritone Etienne Dupuis, with tenor Brian Jagde as her lover Alvaro, and their duet in the military camp during Act 3 was riveting. James Creswell as the father of Leonora sang a fine bass in Act 1, Vasilisa Berzhanskaya made a pretty gypsy Preziosilla, Rodion Pogessov added light relief as Fra Melitone, and Evgeny Stavinsky was outstanding as Padre Guardiano, the abbot of the monastery who gives Leonora permission to occupy the hermit’s dwelling in the mountains (it is never explained why she doesn’t simply join a convent). The monastery is where the final denouement occurs and I found it very satisfactory to see the end of Carlo, soon hidden by the closing of a door.

A fine production, performed with unbeatable musical flair, endorsed by rapturous applause from the audience.

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