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Gaetano Donizetti didn't actually set out to compose a cycle based on the tragic histories of the Tudor Queens. The three works gathered here--including his breakthrough opera, Anna Bolena, Roberto Devereux, and the long-neglected Maria Stuarda--were created at various points in his maniacally prolific career, and each has its own rather complicated, haphazard genesis. But the belated reappreciation given to these works at New York City Opera during the heyday of the bel canto revival--a crucial step in the overall revival of Donizetti as well--conferred a sort of post facto sense of unity thanks to the signature contributions of Beverly Sills. These roles were, quite unpunningly, her crowning achievement. Yet despite a brief efflorescence of celebrity (even extending to a Time magazine cover) when she was considered perhaps the rival to Joan Sutherland, Sills slipped through the cracks. For all her formidable acting skill--a substantial aspect of her accomplishment in these interpretations--she never quite made it to the era of opera telecasting, and her problematic recorded catalog and relatively early retirement from the stage hindered the Sills legend from extending to a new generation.
But now, there's no excuse to overlook the Sills achievement. Coupled with the belated reissue of her early triumph in The Ballad of Baby Doe, this Donizetti box set gives a fuller portrait of the artist Sills. This is quite simply a can't-miss bonanza for Donizetti-heads and, for that matter, fans of beautiful singing. The original project started off with Roberto Devereux--recorded in London in 1969--and continued until the summer 1972 recording of Anna Bolena, but this is the first time the old LPs have been made collectively available on CD in remastered format. The box includes facsimiles of the original lengthy liner notes (with astute background, commentary, and translations--full libretti included--by William Ashbrook) and a bonus booklet of photos from the original NYC Opera productions.
Just as the musical content varies in quality from opera to opera, indeed within each opera, the level of performance is by no means seamless or at the same peak pitch throughout. Some listeners will prefer the less liberal but profoundly attentive and intuitively rich conducting of Charles Mackerras in Devereux, while others will overlook the rather surprisingly sloppy string ensemble and figuration committed by the London Symphony in Anna Bolena for the hectic energy and pacing Julius Rudel could conjure. The challenges demanded by Donizetti's heavy writing for Elisabetta in Devereux can manifest as strain, but this part also registers Sills's vocal acting with a powerful punch: just listen to the range of emotional content she sails through in the scene of her conflicted first duet with Roberto, beginning with "un tenero core" (Act I). One of the joys here is zeroing in on your own favorite passage, scena, flicker of insight: perhaps it's Anna in prison, the outburst of two queens meeting in the park outside Fotheringhay (who cares if history has been amended to suit dramatic license?), or Elisabetta's horrifying realization upon the execution of her beloved. And despite some unevenness in the casting, this set offers a number of other vocal treasures to set beside Sills's artistry: the utterly compelling Giovanna (Jane Seymour) of Shirley Verrett in Anna Bolena, Eileen Farrell's return to the studio for Maria Stuarda's imperious Elizabeth (interesting to compare with Sills's earlier slant on the queen from Devereux), Paul Plishka's imposing Henry the 8th, Peter Glossop's scheming Nottingham. If you're not already an addict, this set will bring you back for fix after fix. --Thomas May
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