Skip to main content
OPERA PLOTS: HISTORICAL OR HYSTERICAL
…or BOTH?
Robert Devereux and Electra

While Robert Devereux takes liberties with historical facts, the opera is based on a real person, the English nobleman who was a favorite of Elizabeth I and an ancestor of Queen Elizabeth II.  

The opera so named after Devereux, based on his downfall and death, is really about  Elizabeth I, sung by no less than soprano Sondra Radvanovsky, who has sung all three Donizetti Tudor Queen operas in the same season  (Mary Stuart,  Anne Boleyn and now Elizabeth I).

Electra is a mythological Greek character, the daughter of King Agamemnon and Queen Clytemnestra, and thus princess of Argos.  Nina Stemme is Electra — last seen in Turandot, this October to be Isolde.  (an equally formidable trio of roles to compare to the Tudor Queens!)

Besides their royalty, both women  have the opportunity on stage to enact their rages. Elizabeth  cringes and pounds the floor at the news of the Lord of Essex’s death.  Electra  dances away in a frantic mania to her end in her grief over the death of her brother.

 Ah yes! Life is so unfair in opera!

Both Elizabeth and Electra  have had many plays, movies, operas written in attempts to figure  them out:  Electra with Greek playwrights from Sophocles, Euripedes and  Aeschylus to the American Eugene O’Neill while  Elizabeth had plays by no less then Shakespeare written in her honor.

Elizabeth has lands named after her (Viriginia comes to mind first, for her, the Virgin Queen). Electra has a psychological complex in her name. 

Historians report that Elizabeth  really only  paused for a moment  at the word that Lord Essex had been executed, and then continued playing the virginal. Thankfully historians don’t write  operas or we would never have had that wonderful final scene of glorious bel canto singing.

Historical or hysterical— and as different as these two themes might sound—in the last two operas of the Met Simulcast season, both ring true.  

At least to my ears!

See you next season.
Details already available at

http://www.metopera.org/Season/In-Cinemas/

Popular posts from this blog

  Once is here again!   The Brooklyn Gallery Players reach into the treasure chest of great musicals to bring Once alive and on stage in Brooklyn (until to December 17, 2023). Director Mark Gallagher , and Music Directors David Fletcher and Brendon McCray have crafted a vibrant production, seamlessly integrating the 15 member cast in roles  as both actors and musicians. Set in Dublin, the  formula for the poignant love triangle  is simple. Patrick Newhart  plays Guy, an Irish musician who has given up  on love as he sings the award winning classic  Falling.  Newhart mastered the bombastic busking guitar style and performed each of his songs with intensity and passion Sophie Smith-Brody  is Girl,  a Czech woman  who will inspire him to try again both in  love and with music. Smith-Brody performed each of her disparate songs with aplomb,  from the opening classical piece to her plaintive solos – If You Want...
Read more
  Sarah Ruhl’s Orlando — sparkling wit and ageless wisdom —   at   Constellation Theatre — gone but not forgotten In Virginia Woolf’s Orlando A Biography ,  the eponymous hero undergoes many changes over the centuries— from roles in society and relationships to sex change.  Since the time travel gender bending work was published in 1928, this his/her story has continued to undergone adaptions to its original form, from analytical scholarly critiques to crowd pleasing  movies and stage plays.  Constellation Theatre Company continued  the tradition with its amazing presentation of Sarah Ruhl’s narrative play Orlando .    Five actors  take on dozens of roles as characters or in the  chorus to keep the story at its rapid pace,  condensing events spanning almost five centuries into 100 minutes.   Orlando (Mary Myers) is  ever the aristocrat whether as a page in the court of  Queen Elizabeth I (Alan Naylor)...
Read more
THE GREY SUIT SOCIETY   A STORY OF FAITH, FAMILY, DEVOTION, BETRAYAL AND…RATS? A message that might seem so obvious in real life turns into a magic moment of awareness when it is takes to the stage with talented directors and a fine cast. Carlos Heredia is the actor, director and writer who with David Fletcher as music director has brought together a group of actors for a family friendly opera. Together they sounded as good as the show’s beautiful theme of peace. Who is the star of a show that is about family and devotion?   Leading the cast, is Analia Heredia as Nia who must go against society’s grain, to bring human hypocrisy into the light.   As she hopes to move out of the shadows in to a bright new world, her family includes Claudillea Holloway as Jelani,  Georgia Fender as Etana,  Sonya Rice as Achi, Carly Ameling as Jane,   Codie Milford as Omari,  Liz Neitge as Janna,  andTiana Markman as Dini. The “others” are ...
Read more