With his choice of Donizetti's Maria di Rohan to open his first Wexford Festival Opera, the new artistic director David Agler took audiences back to the roots of the festival in the 1950s, writes Michael Dervan
The first decade at Wexford was dominated by Italian opera. It accounted for 75 per cent of the repertoire, and a third of those were by Donizetti. By contrast, with twice as many productions in the 10-year reign of Agler's predecessor Luigi Ferrari, a third were Italian, and one - Parisina in 1996 - was by Donizetti.
The enthusiastic response to Thursday's opening night suggested that the audience is with Agler. There's nothing startling in the presentation and the emphasis is on the singing.
The original Vienna version of Maria di Rohan may not be vintage Donizetti. But Donizetti is Donizetti and the music is a lot closer to mainstream successes than the lesser figures who Ferrari tended to concentrate on.
Like a Hollywood comedy or tearjerker, the motions are familiar. They're handled with all the professionalism and expertise you could wish for, although the X-factor which might have secured the work a presence in the standard repertoire is simply not there.
The love-triangle plot, set in the court of Louis XIII, is both operatically simple and unnecessarily messy.
The king, of course, never makes an appearance, nor does the Eminence Rouge, whose shifting fortunes behind the scenes are crucial to the plot.
The greatly desired countess, who gives the opera its title, is sung with touching refinement by Cuban soprano Eglise Gutiérrez; her secret husband Enrico, Duke of Chevreuse, is sung with incisive command and presence by Canadian baritone James Westman; and her ill-fated true love Riccardo, Count of Chalais, is played by the Armenian tenor Yeghishe Manucharyan, who is bright and exciting in tone and heroic in manner.
Charles Edwards, responsible for direction and set design, treats the work as a series of tableaux, with much reliance on emblems. Brigitte Reiffenstuel's costumes are quietly stylish, and Robert Polastri conducts the Cracow Philharmonic Orchestra with sure intention, although the results are sometimes far from ideally pointed or stylish.
The Wexford Festival Opera runs until Sunday, November 6th.
