Hungarian State Opera’s new production of Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda marks the opera’s first staging in this country (seen May 31). As conductor Martin Rajna mentions in the program book, Maria Stuarda isn’t staged all that often even in other countries. Of Donizetti’s three ‘Tudor queen’ operas, Anna Bolena is more popular. What prompted the company to take on Maria Stuarda was having two superb singers on hand who could master the huge demands of the female leads. They certainly found them in Klára Kolonits as Maria and Gabriella Balga as Elisabetta (with Orsolya Sáfár as Maria in some of the performances).
Maria Stuarda’s performance history is incredibly complex. Given that its subject matter involves one monarch hurling the bastard slur against the other, and a climax that results in Maria’s beheading, it’s no wonder the Neapolitan censors banned it following a dress rehearsal in 1834. It was subsequently presented with a different subject, under a different title, and with all manner of music cut, substituted and reordered. It finally premiered in its more original form at Milan’s Teatro alla Scala in December, 1835.
Scene from HSO’s Maria Stuarda. Photo Attila Nagy
Szabó Máté’s new staging was successful in emphasizing what is probably the opera’s greatest strength: two heroines who transcend Romantic female archetypes, and emerge as strong, complex and conflicted human beings. Csaba Antal’s set design is dominated by a huge metal staircase which could be rolled and twisted in multiple directions. It created a hierarchical structure which often saw Elisabetta imperiously enthroned above. In the final scene, it functioned as the gangplank to Maria’s death.
The overall aesthetic was at time confusingly ‘period meets modern.’ The chorus was attractively attired in pared-down Elizabethan garb: black for the English patriots and blue for Maria’s Scottish supporters. This worked well, but Maria’s gauzy, Hollywood-style red glam negligée seemed unsuited to a prisoner about to meet her death. As well, the coolers full of plastic bottled water in an earlier scene came off as a rather random reference to modern consumer culture. Elisabetta’s power-armor suit at the opening of Act II, however, was spot-on in establishing her queen-warrior status as defender of England.
Klára Kolonits (Maria), Norbert Balázs (Cecil) & Gabriella Balga (Elisabetta) in HSO’s Maria Stuarda. Photo Attila Nagy
The big show, of course, is the singing. For roles like Maria and Elisabetta, technical competence is just the starting point. Singers need to be able to channel Donizetti’s roulades and sublime cantilena into something more character-driven if they want to hold the audience’s attention. Both Kolonits and Balga were extremely successful in this regard.
Klára Kolonits’ talents seem tailormade for a role like Maria. She possesses generous, full tone and yet, can negotiate all the tricky fioritura, and is not afraid to cap off her many arias, duets and ensembles with full, healthy high notes. But just as important, her Maria emerges as a fully-rounded woman, possessing hopes, fears and is not afraid to stand her ground.
The famous scene in which she and Elisabetta meet in the forests of Fotheringay (completely made up!) saw Kolinits at her dramatic peak as she calls into question Elisabeth’s legitimacy, thus sealing her own tragic fate. This soprano should be singing roles of this type in any house that cares to stage them.
Gabriella Balga (Elisabetta) in HSO’s Maria Stuarda. Photo Attila Nagy
Balga seems to relish zwischenfach roles like Maria, or for example, Idamante in Mozart’s Idomeneo which I heard her sing in 2023. She can deliver rich, burnished tone in her mid-to-low register and yet, also has an enviable upper extension. Sometimes, her forays to the top of her range sounded slightly disconnected, but overall, her mastery of the role’s technical demands was formidable. She embodied the queen’s myriad of moods with nuance, including her feelings for Leicester (who loves Maria), as well as the conflict she experiences over signing Maria’s death warrant.
In many ways, Donizetti plays with bel canto conventions in Maria Stuarda. Arias tend to be less showy, and are incorporated within larger, more overreaching musical structures. Likewise, the composer eschews tropes around romantic love. Yes, there is a tenor in the mix—the rather slippery Leicester, who is ultimately on Maria’s side—but he is somewhat sidelined by the two sopranos. Slovakian tenor Juraj Hollý sang well but lacked a certain physical investment in the character to make the ultimate impact.
Klára Kolonits (Maria), Juraj Hollý (Leicester) & István Kovács (Talbot) in HSO’s Maria Stuarda. Photo Attila Nagy
The two lower-voice male roles are secondary, but significant. Bass István Kovács took on Talbot, Maria’s confidant who offers her consolation in prison prior to her death. Kovács offered beautiful, resonant tone but his Italian sounded rather swallowed. In Máté’s concept, Talbot stops short of revealing himself as a Catholic priest (something to be hidden in Elisabetta’s Protestant realm), instead only offering the Scottish queen a rosary and bible.
This scene also included one of the director’s more perplexing ideas. Maria confesses to (perhaps) having urged a former lover to kill her former husband and here. They are brought to life here as black-clad ghosts who creep along the stage and ultimately climb onto the queen’s cage. Maria’s delirium leaves us in doubt as to what really happened, so the intrusion of these figures just seems superfluous and unnecessarily distracting.
Baritone Norbert Balázs from the company’s opera studio impressed as Cecil, the underhanded flunky who urges Elisabetta to sign Maria’s death warrant. He declaimed his lines with verbal point, and clear, projecting tone. It will be interesting to see his career develop as a singing-actor.
Klára Kolonits in the title role of HSO’s Maria Stuarda. Photo Attila Nagy
On this night, the production was led from the pit by Szennai Kálmán in a robust, singer-focused rendering of the score. It is difficult to overestimate the superb playing and singing of the company’s orchestra and chorus in their multitude of assignments each season. The voices are always projected with admiral firm tone, while the orchestra seems game to take on whatever musical style the evening demands.
For more on the Hungarian State Opera’s summer season, visit www.opera.hu/en
