Classical reviews: L’amore dei tre Re and Prom 1 BBCSO/Oramo
A HEADY brew of love, betrayal and murder, L’amore dei tre Re (The Love of Three Kings) was an almost forgotten opera until rediscovered by Opera Holland Park and staged in 2007. Now Martin Lloyd-Evans’s production returns in compelling form to complete this year’s successful season.
Set in a medieval Italy conquered by foreign invaders, the story centres on the Italian princess Fiora who has been married off to Manfredo, son of the invading monarch. She is in love with a local prince Avito, and they meet in secret.
Their nemesis is Manfredo’s dominating father Archibaldo who, though blind, is extraordinarily perceptive. Suspicious of Fiora, he lusts after her as well. When she finally admits her guilt, he strangles her - at which point the orchestra’s percussion indulges in some orgasmic thumping. Montemezzi’s lushly erotic score leaves you in no doubt about what is happening.
Designer Jamie Vartan, lighting by Mark Jonathan, updates the story to around the Second World War, with the fortress as a grim concrete tower and invading father and son in German army uniform.
The analogy between the ferocious desire of the three men to possess Fiora, and Italy as a country subjected to invasion is clear when we see Fiora’s coffin draped in red, white and green.
In a gothic flourish, Avito dies from the poison spread on Fiora’s lips by Archibaldo, to trap her lover.
Not to be outdone, Manfredo kisses her and dies, leaving his father devastated at having caused his son’s death. It only remains for subversive servant Flaminio to kill Archibaldo, thus bringing the gore-fest to a satisfying conclusion.
Played without interval over 90 minutes, the tension never slackens. Russian bass Mikhail Svetlov, as Archibaldo, is mesmerising.
He has a resonant bass, a commanding presence, and realistically portrays an old man’s blindness.
Natalya Romaniw is thrilling as Fiora, whether in the love scenes with Joel Montero’s fine tenor Avito or in her defiance of Archibaldo.
Simon Thorpe’s sympathetic Manfredo and Aled Hall’s solidly effective Flaminio complete the cast.
The City of London Sinfonia, under conductor Peter Robinson, is in cracking form. In a neat piece of linking, the First Night of Proms 2015 brought us two helpings of Belshazzar’s Feast. Sibelius wrote his suite for a stage version of the Bible story.
The other work was William Walton’s rousing cantata Belshazzar’s Feast, fielding a massed chorus and two extra brass bands with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Chief Conductor Sakari Oramo.
When Walton composed the work in 1931, it proved too much for the BBC’s studio resources, and its premiere passed to the Leeds Festival, directed by Thomas Beecham, who suggested that as it was too large to perform anywhere else, Walton might as well throw in a couple of brass bands.
The cantata has remained one of Walton’s most celebrated compositions. The massed sound of the BBC National Chorus of Wales, BBC Singers, and BBC Symphony, and the single baritone, Christopher Maltman, brought out the full drama of the text adapted from the Bible by Osbert Sitwell.
In contrast, Sibelius’s version, played first, subtly evoked an oriental mood, with breathing space for solo flute and clarinet.
The evening began with Nielsen’s Maskarade and the world premiere of Gary Carpenter’s Dadaville, which was accompanied by a burst of fireworks. With Lars Vogt in a consummate performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto in D minor, as well, this was a storming start to the season.
VERDICT: 4/5
Montemezzi’s L’amore dei tre Re at theOpera Holland Park, London W8 (Tickets: 0300 999 1000/operahollandpark.com; £17-£75 )
BBC Proms 2015 Prom 1 BBCSO/Oramo at the Royal Albert Hall, London SW7 (Proms tickets: 0845 401 5040/bbc.co.uk/proms)
