Review: Donizetti’s ‘La Favorite,’ a Rare Concert Performance in French at Caramoor

KATONAH, N.Y. — If reality television shows had been around in the 1800s, opera composers would have made an excellent subject. In many ways, their work resembled that of modern-day cooking show contestants who are presented a handful of seemingly incompatible ingredients, arbitrary restrictions and a punitive time frame in which to whip up a feast. One such concoction is Donizetti’s opera “La Favorite,” which received a rare concert performance in its original French version here on Saturday at Bel Canto at Caramoor.

Donizetti cobbled the work together from previous drafts at short notice for the 1840 season of the Paris Opera, using a melodramatic story driven by mostly unpalatable characters, and tailored it to flatter the talents of a mezzo-soprano who was the commissioning impresario’s mistress. Somehow, it holds together. In fact, under the direction of Will Crutchfield, with the captivating French mezzo Clémentine Margaine in the title role, Saturday’s performance afforded moments of real beauty.

The story is set in medieval Spain. Fernand, a monk, has fallen in love with a mysterious woman who appeared, angel-like, in church one day. Against the stern warnings of Father Balthazar, he breaks his vows to pursue a romance with her. But she continues to conceal her identity and, inexplicably, sends him off to fight the Moors.

In fact, Léonor, for that is the mysterious woman’s name, has long been the unhappy mistress of King Alphonse XI of Castile. When Fernand wins glory on the battlefield and with it the king’s favor, a love triangle forms that leads to her demise, the sovereign’s heartache and Fernand’s humbled return to the monastery.

As Léonor, Ms. Margaine sang with a plush mezzo gleaming with dark overtones. The richness and weight of her voice and her keen sensitivity to textual nuances lent tragic substance to a character — compromised from the beginning — who is otherwise something of a cipher.

Santiago Ballerini brought a firm, slightly reedy tenor to the role of Fernand. There was a generous dose of plangent inflections to his hotheaded exchanges, but also instances of lovely mezza voce in expressions of tenderness.

Donizetti reserves some of the most beautiful melodies for the King, who, sung by the marvelous baritone Stephen Powell, took on more dignity and vulnerability than the character strictly deserves. The bass-baritone Daniel Mobbs was a stentorian, sonorous Balthazar; the soprano Isabella Gaudi and the tenor SungWook Kim were uneven in supporting roles.

The music itself is dark and substantial. There are well-turned-out set pieces for each of the principals, of course, but Donizetti’s dramatic talent comes through in moments like the opening confrontation between Balthazar and Fernand, in which piety, erotic ardor, stern authority and youthful daydreaming are woven into a dynamic and flexible scene.

An obligatory ballet — this is French grand opera, after all — became a delightful showcase for Donizetti’s orchestral writing, with seductive, exotic melodies and flashy solos for a number of instruments. The Orchestra of St. Luke’s appeared energized by the opportunity to show off here, with standout performances by the concertmaster Krista Bennion Feeney and the excellent trumpet section.

If the performance did not quite persuade me of the need to return “La Favorite” to the stage, it did underscore the importance of presenting the work in French, rather than in one of several censor-wary Italian versions that exist. There is a very French post-Revolutionary malaise hovering over the story, the product of a world in which it has become thinkable to challenge openly the authorities of church, crown and class structure, but in which their grip on the personal freedom of a common-born man remains as crushing as ever.