{"id":2950,"date":"2018-04-23T15:42:56","date_gmt":"2018-04-23T13:42:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/atorod.pl\/?p=2950"},"modified":"2018-04-30T12:00:31","modified_gmt":"2018-04-30T10:00:31","slug":"the-virgin-queen-and-her-last-lover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/?p=2950","title":{"rendered":"The Virgin Queen and Her Last Lover"},"content":{"rendered":"

The most powerful men in the world \u2013 among them King Philip\u00a0II Habsburg of Spain; Eric Vasa, later king of Sweden; and the archdukes of Austria \u2013 Ferdinand\u00a0I Habsburg and his son Charles of Styria \u2013 vied for her hand. \u00a0She refused them all. The court was abuzz with gossip and her enemies called her \u2018the whore of Europe\u2019; meanwhile, Elizabeth\u00a0I consistently cultivated her status as the Virgin Queen, a woman not subject to any man, thanks to which fact she could rule the country independently. It was more difficult for her to maintain a reputation as a woman immune to flights of feeling. She was always surrounded by favourites, from Robert Dudley, the \u2018sweet Robin\u2019 with whom she fell in love back in her childhood, and whose premature decease she mourned so long and painfully that her courtiers had to break down the door to her chamber. She was fascinated by beautiful, intelligent and ambitious men. Increasingly younger with the passing years. In 1587, she received Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex \u2013 Dudley\u2019s godson and later stepson \u2013 into her group of favourites. Robert was captivatingly handsome\u2026 and rotten to the core. He whispered false compliments into the queen\u2019s ear, danced the galliard with her, played cards and chess with her until all hours of the night, in an effort to relax her vigilance and attain a better position in the ruthless battle for power. In 1599, right in the middle of the Irish war against English rule, he convinced Elizabeth to put him at the head of an army of 16\u00a0000 and entrust him with the mission of quashing the rebellion. He squandered the campaign and entered into treasonous alliances, but when he realized his error, it was too late. This time, the queen did not forgive him. She divested him of all privileges, and finally sent him under the executioner\u2019s hatchet. She died two years after the decapitation of her last favourite: numb, indifferent to the world, submerged in deep depression.<\/p>\n

The tragic story of their relationship \u2013 viewed through the prism of Freudian psychoanalysis \u2013 was described by Lytton Strachey in his book entitled Elizabeth and Essex<\/em>. It was this book which became the main source of inspiration for William Plomer, librettist for the opera Gloriana<\/em>, the greatest failure Britten experienced in his lifetime. Elizabeth\u00a0II, daughter of George VI, was proclaimed as queen on 7\u00a0February 1952. A few weeks later, Britten and Peter Pears went skiing in the company of the Earl of Harewood, at that time director of Covent Garden. Harewood, encouraged by the recent success of Billy Budd<\/em>, suggested that the composer write an opera in honour of the coronation planned for the next year. Britten threw himself into a frenzy of work. In May 1953, a few weeks before the planned premi\u00e8re, the players of the lead roles \u2013 Pears as Essex and Joan Cross as Elizabeth \u2013 presented selected fragments with piano accompaniment to the royal couple at the Harewoods\u2019 London residence. Already then, the singers sensed an impending catastrophe. Cross was shocked by the complete lack of interest on the part of the audience, hidden beneath the mask of court etiquette. From the beginning, Pears had felt uncomfortable in the role of Robert \u2013 so much so that Britten reportedly considered transposing it for a bass voice and engaging Bulgarian singer Boris Christoff. The production was received icily. There was a shower of accusations that the creators had offended the queen even just with their selection of subject matter for the opera. The critics reproved the dramaturgical weaknesses of the libretto, as well as the imitative and pompous character of the music. Gloriana <\/em>was omitted from the recording of Britten\u2019s complete works conducted by composer. It has returned to the stage sporadically and often in unfortunate circumstances. A chance for it to take its place in the mainstream repertoire was seen only in 2013, on the occasion of Britten\u2019s 100th<\/sup>\u00a0birthday celebrations and the new staging prepared at the Royal Opera House as part of them.<\/p>\n

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Gloriana <\/em>in Madrid, Act I. Photo: Javier del Real.<\/p>\n

Sixty years after the world premi\u00e8re, most of the charges leveled against the opera appear to be pointless. The supposedly imperfect libretto is astounding in the panache and psychological depth of its characters. The score holds true pearls \u2013 the wonderful monologue of the queen torn between feelings and duty, ending with an ardent prayer (\u2018Forgive and protect me, O God, my king, that I may rule and protect my people in peace\u2019); the brilliant pastiches of court dances in Act\u00a0II; the heartbreaking duet of the protagonists from Act\u00a0III, shortly after Essex bursts into Elizabeth\u2019s bedroom and is shocked to discover her shameful old age. The main axis of the drama is designated by the same motif as in Peter Grimes <\/em>and Billy Budd <\/em>\u2013 a forbidden love whose object must be gotten rid of or destroyed. Except that in this opera, the unfulfillable feeling concerns the queen: the personification of duty to the state and the nation, a providential being whose weakness it was unsuitable to display in the decade of the country\u2019s rise from the ashes of wartime destruction. Gloriana<\/em> had to wait for its chance. A few days ago, it made its entrance on the stage of the Teatro Real, conquering yet another barrier \u2013 the Spaniards\u2019 aversion to the queen responsible for the defeat of the Spanish Armada.<\/p>\n

Scottish stage director David McVicar organized the space around a gigantic mobile astrolabe, or more properly, armillary sphere \u2013 a device that in this conception appears to symbolize not only the power of the authority wielded by Elizabeth, but also its limitations. The sun never sets on the empire: it circles endlessly over the round map of the world appropriated by the queen and trod by her subjects. It does not set because it is imprisoned in this sphere. The circles of the astrolabe turn about their own axis and emerge in various planes, but the construction holds firmly together. The entire evil \u2013 the intrigues, the lies, the treasonous instigations \u2013 are born outside and mercilessly infiltrate the depths of the sphere. Robert Jones\u2019 stage design is complemented by Brigitte Reiffenstuel\u2019s costumes, clearly inspired by the portrait painting of the period, and above all, by the masterful light design (Adam Silverman), highlighting not so much the splendour as the thickening gloom of the final years of Queen Gloriana\u2019s reign. McVicar played out his stage gesture with typically British solicitude, having found a very intelligent ally in the person of Colm Seery (choreography), who did his thing in the court masque and ball scenes. The singers did an excellent job with their acting tasks, and chief among them Anna Caterina Antonacci (Elizabeth), who moved about the stage with a stiffness characteristic of a sickly woman crushed beneath the weight of age.<\/p>\n

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Anna Caterina Antonacci (Elizabeth). Photo: Javier del Real.<\/p>\n

Antonacci\u2019s voice took on full expression only at the end of Act\u00a0I; however, her colourful, beautifully-aging soprano was an ideal match for the role assigned to it by Britten. I was somewhat less convinced by Leonardo Capalbo in the role of Robert Devereux, who possesses a tenor of not particularly memorable sound, at times over-vibrated and not too secure in intonation. In the duet from Act\u00a0III, however, both of them rose to the heights of interpretation, carrying on their dialogue in two different shades of despair \u2013 Essex\u2019s laden with desperate fear; and the queen\u2019s, with painful resignation. Wonderful supporting characters were created by Duncan Rock (Mountjoy), Leigh Melrose (Robert Cecil), Paula Murrihy (Frances), and especially Sophie Bevan (Penelope), whose terrifying scream after the queen signs the sentence upon Essex rings in my ears to this day. Deserving of separate mention is Sam Furness in the small role of the Spirit of the Masque \u2013 sung in a tenor bringing to mind associations with the first person to play this role, William McAlpine. A year ago on this stage, Furness portrayed the role of the Novice from Billy Budd<\/em>, another character created by McAlpine. Every time I hear him, I have an impression of continuity in a beautiful vocal tradition, carried on by a singer intelligent enough to resist current fashions.<\/p>\n

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Anna Caterina Antonacci and Leonardo Capalbo (Robert Devereux). Photo: Javier del Real.<\/p>\n

The true revelation of the Madrid premi\u00e8re, however, turned out to be the conductor. Ivor Bolton led Gloriana <\/em>completely differently from his few predecessors. Instead of highlighting the \u2018Elgarisms\u2019 contained in the score, of underlining its pathos and sharp rhythmic contours \u2013 he delved into the depths of Britten\u2019s inspirations. And then, it suddenly turned out that all those madrigals, anthems and lute songs are there for a reason. That Britten\u2019s composition is not a spectacular medley of pseudo-Elizabethan melodies, but rather a deeply thought-out, sometimes ironic, sometimes melancholic, every now and then brutally blunt pastiche. In the pavane played in this way, one heard a foreshadowing of the impending tragedy. In Elizabeth\u2019s prayer presented in this way, the desire for a peaceful reign clashed with the spectre of a painful past. All the more forcefully that Bolton had under his baton alert, sensitive musicians who reacted to every nod of his head.<\/p>\n

The ovation after the premi\u00e8re was surprisingly restrained. Two days later \u2013 now in Warsaw \u2013 I heard a broadcast of the third showing, received considerably more warmly by the audience. The \u2018slighted child\u2019, as Britten himself called Gloriana<\/em>, is slowly emerging from oblivion. Let\u2019s hope no one scares it away again.<\/p>\n

Translated by: Karol Thornton-Remiszewski<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The most powerful men in the world \u2013 among them King Philip\u00a0II Habsburg of Spain; Eric Vasa, later king of Sweden; and the archdukes of Austria \u2013 Ferdinand\u00a0I Habsburg and his son Charles of Styria \u2013 vied for her hand. \u00a0She refused them all. The court was abuzz with gossip and her enemies called her … [Read more…]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,7],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"entry","1":"post","2":"publish","3":"author-mangusta","4":"post-2950","6":"format-standard","7":"category-posts-in-english","8":"category-wedrowki-operowe"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2950"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2963,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2950\/revisions\/2963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}