Historically, bel canto has been a rarity on the stage of Dutch National Opera. Rumour has it that Pierre Audi, the company’s director for three decades until 2018, had little affinity with this particular repertoire and, if one excepts Rossini, the number of operas by Bellini and Donizetti presented during his tenure can probably be counted on one hand. Financial considerations might have weighed in this choice too. In a country which culturally tends to look more East than South, the early 19th-century Italian style of “beautiful singing” is often dismissed as dated, superficial and just good enough for a few canary bird fanciers. Bel canto is definitely not a crowd pleaser here. Choosing to programme Donizetti’s Anna Bolena, a romanticised account of Anne Boleyn’s final days never staged in this house before, was therefore a risky move from Sophie de Lint, the company’s current artistic director. Judging by the long ovation that greeted last Thursday’s performance, it may be that fortune favours the bold.
Let’s give credit where it is due: if the company hadn’t enrolled Marina Rebeka for the role of Anna Bolena, the doomed second wife of Enrico (Henry VIII), this project would never have happened. The stakes were high but the Latvian soprano deliverd on all promises. Her portrayal was resolutely that of a proud queen, strong and inflexible until her will and mind get smashed by her husband, the king – as well as, albeit unwillingly, by all the scheming men that surround her. Her regal posture and great personal beauty were certainly helpful in this role, but it was above all through Rebeka’s total mastery of her instrument that she managed to paint a character that felt flesh and blood, beyond the stylistic meanders required by the score. Effects were never gratuitous but loaded with emotion. Her timbre was full and lustrous throughout the whole range, with silvery top notes that had the ability to slice through the full-blown sound of orchestra and chorus, or could be spun into the finest silk. “Al dolce guidami” in her final scene was a pure moment of grace that left the audience ecstatic. Truly a star performance!
The rest of the cast did not disappoint either. As Giovanna Seymour (Jane Seymour), Enrico’s new love interest, Raffaella Lupinacci made a successful house debut, her dark and flexible mezzo-soprano combining ideally with Rebeka’s soprano in their Act 2 scene. Adrian Sâmpetrean’s alluring bass made for an Enrico who was perhaps less of a one-dimensionally bully than most. As Percy, Anna’s former lover, tenor Ismael Jordi displayed elegant phrasing and a timbre that was so irresistibly attractive that a couple of fleeting intonation problems were quickly forgotten. There were also fine contributions from Frederik Bergman as Rochefort (Anna’s brother) and mezzo-soprano Cecilia Molinari as a heartfelt Smeton (Anna’s young admirer).
Visibly dividing his attention equally between the singers on stage and the orchestra in the pit, Enrique Mazzola conducted with elegant gestures, his hands moving as precisely as those of a surgeon, as if delicately dissecting the score. The Netherlands Chamber Orchestra sounded inspired by his approach and followed his indication of tempi and dynamics precisely, while displaying a contrasted and refined array of colours.
With its monumental doors, muted colour palette, line-up of chairs and candlelight, the staging by Dutch director Jetske Mijnssen might not exactly be the most innovative, but it is nevertheless dramatically effective. The succession of stern, dark doors that run through the length of the stage forces the main characters and courtiers, played by the chorus, to crowd the reduced space downstage and emphasises the atmosphere of claustrophobia and oppression that reigns in Henry’s court. Those doors are initially only partially opened to spy on people or furtively escape until one flings them open to uncover the horrors of the tower of London.
Mijnssen introduces a recurring silent character in the story that is not mentioned in the libretto: Henry and Anne’s young daughter, the future Elizabeth I. We see her play with dolls and, after Anna is repudiated, being stripped of her clothes. She is, of course, the common thread running through Maria Stuarda and Roberto Devereux, the other two operas by Donizetti featuring “Tudor Queens” that Dutch National Opera will produce over the next two seasons with Mijnssen as director. They will both star Marina Rebeka. Needless to say that the dates are already in my diary.
