Product: Donizetti - Roberto Devereux / Rudel, Sills, Alexander, New York City Opera (1975)
Rating: 3.0
Lesser Donizetti
I felt this opera and this production were inferior to others I have heard or seen. I am homosexual, so it was not homophobia that made me disgusted to see that at least Roberto had apparently plucked his eyesbrows and was wearing mascara. Everyone's acting was pleasant, Sara's husband made me hate him so he was good, Sara was good enough, Sills' was an extremely self-indulgent regal queen, dismissing people disdainfully, indifferently with a flick of the wrist, pushing people out of the way, all in exquisite character I thought. In fact, she made a nice contrast between the selfish pampered queen and all too human woman, I thought. However, she spent the first 1/3 of the opera in a fury and the last 2/3 in agony. It got tiresome and repetitious, but that's what was written. I was very uncomfortable with Roberto all the way around. The music wasn't as good as I'm used to and have come to expect from Donizetti I thought, though I've never heard anything by him I actually disliked. You really had to listen for the tunes (caught one, that was all), and that last high note that goes sailing up to the balcony (the kind that Sutherland was famous for) was indeed the last note, the last note of the whole show, there were no others! I won't succumb to the temptation to comment on the reviewer who compared the acting of (who else?) Callas, Sutherland and Sills. There are sopranos today that are more convincing than all three of them! One last word on the music. I'm going to keep and watch this DVD again, probably I think many times, because I feel there is more to be gotten out of it than I did at one time through (though I have the opera on CD also with Sills and always thought I liked it, in fact I have all the 3 queens with Sills on CD, and when the us postal service condescends to get Maria Stuarda to me, I'll have all three on DVD too, Stuarda an obscure Italian group that is supposed to be very good, I hope so). On the other hand, if I'm as disappointed on subsequent viewings/hearings as I was with the first, I may put this DVD alongside Don Carlos and cut my losses.