Donizetti’s Poliuto and Bizet’s Carmen: Opera reviews

From the opening scene of massive grey pillars on which are projected videos of war-torn Sarajevo, the staging is in stark contrast to the gorgeous imagery that director/designer team of Mariame Clement and Julia Hansen brought to their 2013 Glyndebourne Festival production of Don Pasquale. 

The opera, set in third century Armenia, famously ends with its hero and heroine being thrown to the lions. Based on the drama Polyeucte by Pierre Corneille, its tale of the persecution of Armenian Christians by their Roman conquerors led to its 1838 premiere being banned by the King of Naples, as inappropriate for the stage.  Donizetti left Italy to re-write it for the Paris audience as a longer opera with ballet interludes, titled Les Martyrs.   

It’s surprising this leaner, earlier version is so rarely performed.  It is an intriguing psychological thriller about love and politics that swiftly gets to the point.  Paolina, daughter of the Governor of Armenia, has reluctantly agreed to marry the nobleman Poliuto, believing that the man she truly loves, the Roman Proconsul Severo, has fallen in battle.  

Severo returns in triumph to claim her, only to find she is no longer free.  Poliuto admits he has secretly converted to Christianity, and is condemned to death.  Paolina has to choose between converting to Christianity and sharing her husband’s death or marrying his murderer.

The music at times foreshadows Verdi’s later work - Donizetti’s chorus of the fanatical priests of Jupiter undoubtedly influenced the triumphal march in Aida.  The London Philharmonic Orchestra under Enrique Mazzola brings out the full-blooded Verdian flavour of the score.  

The three main roles feature world-class singing by American tenor Michael Fabiano, in powerful heroic form as Poliuto, Ana Maria Martinez as an exquisitely sung Paolina, and Russian baritone Igor Golovatenko’s darkly brooding Severo.

A pity, though, that in trying to render ancient Armenia more relevant for today’s audiences, Clement and Hansen have come up with cliche caricature images to evoke a totalitarian regime, including Nazi-style high-peaked hats, and mobs frantically waving red pennants. The singers and the music deserve better.  

David McVicar’s 2002 staging of Carmen makes a welcome return to the Festival, with the superlative French mezzo soprano Stephanie d’Oustrac in the title role.  Her Carmen is dangerously feral, with a mocking allure as she plays one man off against another.  

She is well matched by Czech tenor Pavel Cernoch who evolves from conscientious buttoned-up army corporal to deranged killer over the course of four acts.  It helps, too, that the back-story dialogue explaining Don Jose’s former life as a seminarian is retained.  This makes his descent into homicidal jealousy all the more chilling.

Designer Michael Vale’s industrial-looking set cramps the action in the first and second acts, though opening out for a third act smugglers’ mountain hideout and the fourth act outside the bullring’s rust-coloured walls, where Sue Blane’s red and black costumes bring out the full Andalusian flavour of mantillas and lace.   

With rich-toned bass David Soar as a swaggering Escamillo, and silvery soprano Lucy Crowe as a sweetly resolute Micaela, determined to save her fiancé from the gypsy’s clutches, it’s as good a cast as you could wish for.  

Subsidiary roles such as Simon Lim’s sleazy Zuniga and Carmen’s friends Frasquita (Eliana Pretorian) and Mercedes (Rihab Chaieb) are also well cast.    

Dynamic playing by London Philharmonic Orchestra under conductor Jakub Hrusa brings a freshness and spontaneity to Bizet’s persistently popular score.

Donizetti’s Poliuto and Bizet’s Carmen at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Nr Lewes, East Sussex(Tickets: 01273 815000/glyndebourne.com; £40-£250)