Roberto Devereux Reviews

Since the Donizetti opera, Roberto Devereux, is tomorrow, I went out to read some reviews.  Below are three of them.  I couldn't stop at three but had to read and read and read even more.

Justin Davidson in The Vulture is enough of a good review that a person might want to see this opera.

Heidi Waleson in The Wall Street Journal gives another fine review.

I got stuck on Tommasini's New York Times review.  There was a slide show of 22 photos and a utube clip of a duet in Act I.  Lucky for me that I am retired and have the time to read through all of this.

I met a friend at the grocery store today and when she asked me how I was keeping busy.

I told her it was with all of the HD Live performances.

She said that if it were one of the Beatles, she would be interested, but no opera.

That made me laugh.

Yes, there is music for everyone.  I think saw the Beatles when I was 16 and I would probably go to a performance of that as well, especially if it were in the form of a musical.

Or even a Beatles opera would do.

Arta

P.S. If you have time, read this clip from the NewYorkTimesClassical Review:

" The eye for historical detail in McVicar’s staging is even keener than in his other productions of the cycle. Moritz Junge’s handsome costumes take their inspiration from Elizabethan-era portraiture; Essex’s first costume, a flashy black surcoat finished with silver threading over black plate armor (admittedly an odd choice for court dress) is lifted directly from a William Segar portrait. This is more heavily symbolic than the other productions have been, as well. Always looming behind the set (a clever, sliding black-and-gold room of state with an upper balcony) is an enormous reproduction of the Hampton Court astronomical clock. To the right and left of the main center-stage doors stand recessed statues of Death and Time, likely pulled from an anonymous “Allegorical Portrait” of Elizabeth. The mysterious funeral staged during the overture is only explained when its sarcophagus reappears in the final scene as Elizabeth proclaims her own end. Death, we are to understand, is everywhere, and the Queen is running out of time–a strong central idea, though one presented with a heavy hand. "