Above: Carmen Topciu as Elisabetta, Olga Peretyatko as Maria and Bronwyn Douglass as Anna. Featured image: Full cast of Opera Australia’s Maria Stuarda In Concert. Images: Prudence Upton.

At the centre of Opera Australia’s offering for Sydney audiences in 2022 is a compelling in-concert version of Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda. This opera is presented on the Dame Joan Sutherland Theatre stage which honours our Donizetti star performer from the past. This version with fresh stars, sans costuming and sets, has plenty of passion, bel canto excellence and fierce dramatic drive.

Principals have scores and music stands and there are chairs for the ensemble, dressed in formal black. Vivid, slick lighting helps map out the grisly tale of  the Elizabethan love triangle, the legacy of Henry VIII’s attack on Catholicism and fiery queens at war.

Donizetti’s grand operatic outlook, beautifully demanding bel canto sections of song and vocal fireworks for lead characters in the clever score is well showcased in this theatre mode for the concert.

In the role of Elizabeth I, Carmen Topciu is on attack right from the outset. The directness of her rich mezzo voice with powerful projection slices through the night. It is ruthless in giving dire warning to anyone opposing or insulting her desperate, scaffold-hungry self-protection she inherited from the unholy union of King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn.

Above: Tenor Valerio Borgioni in the role of Roberto, Earl of Leicester. Image: Prudence Upton.

Mary Queen of Scots (Maria Stuarda) is imprisoned, framed with false letters and charged with treason against the  Virgin Queen. She languors, awaiting a death sentence with her companion lady Anna Kennedy as the public and noblemen who visit her try to plead with Queen Elizabeth I to reverse.

Elizabeth is receiving a proposal to marry the Dauphin of France for reasons of political alliance, but her vulnerability lies with an affection for the Earl of Leicester, who is conspicuously involved with saving Queen Mary.

In  this concert guise,  the deceptive sweetness and love for a crazy tale in Donizetti’s setting  pivots successfully on a smooth knife-edge as moments of song and brooding sweetness alternate with full, savage outbursts.

Above : Conductor Renato Palumbo and the cast of ‘Maria Stuarda’. Image: Prudence Upton.

Conductor Renato Palumbo leads the orchestra and relatively static cast in this brave, sumptuous buffet with a delicate array of flavours. No violent confrontation or agony of predicament is lost in the reduced staging. The vocal delivery in dialogue and seamless, emotionally accurate ensemble moments are consistently as powerful as they are poignant.

This is a substantial serving of nineteenth-century opera music. The focus on the skill of Donizetti as a theatre composer and of the cast as storytellers without typical stage decoration is keen and clear.

Without traditional opera stage action, the characters interact with increased tension, and their range of performance technique employed to recreate this ‘all is fair in love, British court and war’ in concert mode is thrilling.

Above: Richard Anderson in the role of Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury. Image: Prudence Upton.

Olga Peretyatko’ s reputation as a queen of the  Donizetti coloratura role precedes her, and is solidly reinforced here. In the spirit of La Stupenda, in the opera house sporting her name, Peretyatko bristles in the role. Her virtuosic tracing of Donizetti’s Maria is true to character and deeply, believeably seated in the legend.

This diva’s breathtakingly agile portrayal uses an unstoppable wealth colours, both in fleeting and prolonged display. Her enhancing of climaxes several times on the journey with a sudden, highland leap to the top register is stunning and secure. Economical gesturing such as body turns, twists or reaching for the neck portray the requisite turmoil well, showing this artist’s ability for high level  communication in any environment.

Battle scenes between the unwavering monarchs are still frightening in this version. The evils of entitled hatred are painted vividly and well-sung insults volley back and forth above music stands ferociously.

Supporting and observing the bitchiness are characters such as The Earl of Shewsbury, Georgio (George) Talbot. This character is here a sure-voiced and attentive player. Richard Anderson brings a warm series of declamations to his pro-Stuart part of the concert stage throughout. His enjoyable depth of tone and precision  helps Donizetti’s ensemble moments shine with exquisite balance.

Above : Coloratura soprano Olga Peretyako as Mary Queen of Scots. Image: Prudence Upton.

So too does the stage presence of team-Tudor courtier Shane Lowrencev (Lord High Treasurer William Cecil)  illuminate conversation and plot-thickening moments of scheming dialogue. He provides a special clarity and energy for the political aspect of this Court story.  In concert performance style he greatly aids the momentum at all times.

Valerio Borgioni ignites the stage, his passion and soaring tenor sensibility is a hit with the crowd. He is a gentle but sure musical giant in the dramatic mileu, with a popular penchant for creating fine vocal  contours.

The variety of utterance from the Opera Australia chorus, so well prepared by Paul Fitzsimon in this choral block format is a enjoyable to witness. Atmospheres are achieved instantly and provoke or chill the mood from the rear choir stalls. Moments for the entrapped Mary entangled with the public such as the humble prayer  ‘Deh! Tu di un’umile preghiera’ are recreated with a  hopeless resignation as incisive and penetrating as any fully-staged march to beheading you could witness.

This in-concert version has a royal flush of talent and moves to its  climax and well-deserved ovations at great speed. This is meaty Donizetti with a myriad of subtleties reworked to their full extent. It champions the inventiveness of operatic composers, and the versatility of artists well equipped to bring it to energetic, elevated life.