Palace Affair

It’s been a great month for Donizetti aficionados in the Bay Area. Even as the San Francisco Opera was mounting its revival of the composer’s Lucia di Lammermoor with the incandescent Natalie Dessay in the title role (see review), Pocket Opera revisited Roberto Devereux in three performances at the Palace of the Legion of Honor. Composed two years after Lucia, with a libretto by Donizetti’s Lucia collaborator, Salvatore Cammarano, Roberto Devereux (1837) is the third of the composer’s three “Elizabeth” operas — a trilogy that began with Anna Bolena (1830) and Maria Stuarda (1835). The work focuses on the tumultuous relationship between England’s Queen Elizabeth I and her favorite, the Earl of Essex, and the events leading up to his execution for treason. The drama is predominantly personal, not political. The charges of treason brought against Robert, even as he returns from Ireland a hero, form the backbone of the plot, but they’re mostly kept at a simmer offstage. In the foreground are Elizabeth’s suspicions that Robert, who has sworn allegiance as both an adviser and a lover, has betrayed her with another woman. (The question of whether the Virgin Queen actually had a sex life has been the subject of historical debate, but it provided Donizetti with a juicy premise here, and has been the basis of films including The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, with Bette Davis and Errol Flynn.) When the Queen learns that her suspicions are correct, and that Robert’s lover is her lady-in-waiting, Sara, it’s off with his head. Donizetti takes the story right up to the moment of execution — and past it, with Elizabeth proclaiming her own impending death from grief and the succession of King James I.

Saturday afternoon at the Florence Gould Theater (downstairs in the Legion of Honor), Pocket Opera capped a three-date run with an intermittently thrilling performance. Presented in Pocket Opera’s signature style, with an English translation by company founder and artistic director Donald Pippin, and an orchestral reduction for the eight-piece Pocket Philharmonic led by Pippin at the piano, the production featured efficient stage direction by Andrew Morgan and strong singers in three of the four principal roles. Brian Thorsett, in the title role, was a major contributor to the afternoon’s success. He is an impressive young artist who boasts a firm, well-supported tenor instrument marked by richly colored sound throughout his range and bright, ringing top notes. Saturday, he lavished warm tone and elegant, articulate phrasing on the role, sounding forthright in his first duet with Elizabeth, tender in the Act 1 farewell to his beloved Sara, virile and true in his final aria — which featured a lovely violin solo by Pocket concertmaster Yasushi Ogura — as Robert, locked in his cell, awaits execution. Still, any production of Roberto Devereux rises or falls on its Elizabeth. The role has been sung by proponents including Leyla Gencer, Monserrat Caballe, and, most definitively, Beverly Sills. Here, it was entrusted to soprano Marcelle Dronkers, who sang with a fearless blend of force and agility. Dronkers negotiated the role’s coloratura with bright, penetrating vocalism, capturing both the rage and vulnerability at war within the character. The third pivotal role, that of Sara, was sung with intelligence and pure, affecting tone by soprano Rachel Michelberg. Roger D. McCracken, however, was a regrettable choice as her husband, the Duke of Nottingham. McCracken, a veteran of many Pocket productions, came to grief early on as the duke who defends Essex in Act 1 and turns on him when it becomes clear that Sara is Robert’s secret paramour. Wavering pitch, and an audible struggle to sustain the musical line, plagued the baritone throughout the afternoon. Bradley Kynard, as Cecil, Alex Ip, as a Messenger, and Michael Beetham, as Sir Walter Raleigh, made fine contributions, as did the ensemble of Joseph Greaves, Julia Milin, Melody Caspari, Randi Linee, and Kathryn Miller. It’s always a pleasant surprise to hear how much of a full orchestra’s color and texture Pippin is able to coax from his Pocket Philharmonic. Despite a few moments of rusty string sound, the ensemble played well, nimbly projecting the urgent Italianate atmosphere of Donizetti’s score. And, as always, Pippin supplied witty, insightful between-the-scenes commentary. Next month, the company will tackle Puccini’s La Bohème — in English, of course — slated for one performance at the Napa Valley Opera House and four repeats at the Florence Gould Theater, July 12-27.