Donizetti: Roberto Devereux (Elizabeth and Essex)

Our Price: $56.99
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $16.50 (click here)
Category: Music CD
See more CD details

CD Details

Music reviews of Donizetti: Roberto Devereux (Elizabeth and Essex)

Music Review: Beverly Sills Is Not Miscast: Long Live The Queen
Rating: 5 Stars

Queen Elizabeth herself is a lot like Bellini's Norma, and their voices, powerful, challenging, flexible, portray a woman in a power position who loves a man who does not return her love, fueling jealousy in her first and later regret and compassion. Queen Elizabeth is a complex figure, and we will never know whether the rumors that she loved Robert Devereaux were true or not. But the opera makes for great historic drama and escape into a time that was considered England's finest days. Beverly Sills is and always will be America's best soprano. Now, in her 70's, she sits as Chairman of the Board at the Met, having long ago sat on the throne as Queen Elizabeth I and as queen of opera.

Still not convinced ? Listen to Beverly Sills' great use of lyricism and control of breath in her legato in her love aria "L'amor suo mi fe beata" "His love was my blessing". It is simple, beautiful, elegant and yet powerfully expressive of her tender love. Listen also to the vibrant coloratura and chorus use in "A ritorna qual ti spero " (O, return as I hope) where Sills voice becomes like fireworks. Listen, also to the perfect harmony and intensity in the duet (Un lampo un lampo horribile ! A horrible lightning).

Acts 2 and 3 express the Queen's dark side. She has discovered that Devereaux has betrayed her, not on political grounds as her courtiers tell her, but also in affairs of the heart. He has loved another woman while professing his love and devotion to her. In a fit of jealous rage, she condemns Devereaux to death. Listen how dark, sinister the angry queen's lines are in "Un perfido! Un vile! Un mentitore! (a traitor! A villian! A Liar) before she plunges into the threat "Pria d'offender chi nascea del tremendo ottavo Enrico, scender vivo nel sepulcro tu dovevi o traditor! (literally- Before angering she who was born of the terrible Henry 8th, it would have been better had you been buried alive in your tomb!). The queen's wrath comes to a climax when she issues Devereaux's death sentence which a full chorus of her court eagerly support (Va La Morte Sul cop ti pende, go, death hangs over your head).

Finally, the Queen's last scenes in Act 3 are her best. She is now feeling guilty and regrets her course of action. She loves Devereaux, after all, and she was blinded by rage and jealousy. She no longer feels she is even worthy of sitting on the throne of England (her aria Vivi Ingrato). This aria is well constructed and at the hands of Sills, beautifully sung. The Queen attempts to stop Devereaux' execution but the means of rescue come to late. Devereaux is killed. She then plummets into her final aria "Quelle Sangre Versato". She mourns Devereaux's death, her mind seems to be deteriorating, she sees his ghost in the palace, she feels resigned from her role as queen, giving the new title to James I, who as history shows, became England's king after Elizabeth's death. Coincidentally, she died very shortly after Robert Devereaux' execution.

Classical CDs

• Music > Styles