A NOBLEMAN STEALS AGING QUEEN’S HEART IN DALLAS OPERA’S ‘ROBERTO DEVEREUX’
By Scott Cantrell / scantrell@dallasnews.com

Dallas Morning News
Jan 21 2009
TX

Fascination with royal loves didn’t exactly begin with Prince Charles
and Diana Spencer. Or even with King Edward VIII and Wallis Warfield
Simpson.

Real or imagined, the loves of Queen Elizabeth I have figured in
novels, plays, movies and even operas. And that’s despite (or because
of ) the never-married monarch’s claim that she would go to her grave
both queen and virgin.No fewer than three operas about Elizabeth I are
by the 19th-century Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti: Elisabetta al
castello di Kenilworth, Maria Stuarda and Roberto Devereux . Following
up on its 2007 production of Maria Stuarda, the Dallas Opera brings
Roberto Devereux to the Music Hall stage Friday, with three more
performances on the schedule.

The sometimes murderous intrigues of the 16th-century British court
perfectly suited a composer, and period, that loved high drama and
vocal fireworks. Count on plenty of both in Roberto Devereux.

"It’s history, and a very dramatic story," says Hasmik Papian, the
Armenian soprano who plays Elizabeth in the opera – and sings music
of dazzling virtuosity. "It’s also very touching for today. And the
music is just gorgeous."

Adds tenor Stephen Costello, who portrays Elizabeth’s supposed
love, Robert Devereux, "You see how the queen gets very jealous and
passionate, even though she was known as ‘the virgin queen.’ And the
music is fantastic."

Also appearing in the opera are mezzo Elizabeth Batton as Sara,
Duchess of Nottingham; and baritone David Kempster as the Duke of
Nottingham. The production brings back the stage director of the 2007
Maria Stuarda, Stephen Lawless, and, with some amendments, the Globe
Theatre set by designer Benoit Dugardyn.

This isn’t a time to fuss over historical accuracy. Based on an 1829
play by the French dramatist Francois Ancelot, Roberto Devereux takes
plenty of liberties with the relationship, whatever it really was,
between the queen and the young Earl of Essex (Devereux’s title).

"It’s Queen Elizabeth toward the end of her reign, the 53-year-old
queen, with one last lover," says Dallas Opera music director Graeme
Jenkins, who’s conducting the performances. "Here comes this dashing
young man into the court, getting ahead of all the other courtiers,
and they’re all incredibly jealous.

"Within a year of the opera’s opening, he goes to quell an uprising
in Ireland, and everything goes wrong. While he’s away the courtiers
have worked up a treason plot against him, and only his friend Lord
Nottingham tries to save him."

But here’s where, with plenty of operatic license, it gets
complicated. Although Elizabeth, against her better judgment, is
obviously infatuated with Essex, in the opera he’s in love with
Nottingham’s wife, Sara. Essex and Sara had been an item some time
before, but Elizabeth got her rival married off to Nottingham.

When Essex admits to Elizabeth that he doesn’t love her, the queen goes
off in a vocal tirade. And when Nottingham, by way of an embroidered
scarf, learns that he’s been cuckolded, the formerly prim-and-proper
nobleman loses his cool. When all is finally out in the open, the
queen really goes berserk, with plenty of vocal fireworks.

What happens to Essex? Well, you’ll just have to go to the opera to
find out, but let’s just say it’s a real knuckle-biter.

"He’s a very pompous guy," says Costello, whose dashing good looks
are perfect for a young nobleman who steals a queen’s heart. "He
kind of felt that his relationship with the queen was far beyond what
she presumed.

"I think she was infatuated that he was a younger guy and had an
interest in her. But it was a love-hate relationship. She loved him,
but she was still the queen, still the ruler of England, and she
wanted to prove it."

In the end, power and pride win over love.

"She’s a complex woman," Papian says of Queen Elizabeth, "but I think
she stays a cruel woman. If I had been her, I would have forgiven. Of
course, she regrets it at the end, but it’s too late."