Small picture of Donizetti

 

 

 

Donizetti's Mary Stuart

Opera North, Grand Theatre, Leeds, July 2010 and then touring.

Photographs by Bill Cooper, provided courtesy of  Opera North.

 

The Team

Mary Stuart  -  Sarah Connolly

Elizabeth  - Antonia Cifrone

Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester  -  Bülent Bezduz

Sir William Cecil  -  David Kempster

George Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury  -  Frédéric Bourreau

Hannah Kennedy -  Michelle Walton

 

Conductor  -  Guido Johannes Rumstadt

Director -  Antony McDonald

Set & Costume Designer -  Antony McDonald

Lighting Designer - Lucy Carter

 

Geoffrey Mogridge, The Ilkley Gazette, June 17, 2010, wrote of "an absorbing, fluid production and well worth experiencing not only for Connolly’s magnificence in the title role, although the evening inevitably belongs to her". Anna Picard in The Independent on Sunday, June 13, 2010  was also quite positive rather unusually singling out "the lighting (by Lucy Carter) thrilling at Connolly's exit". However, although Rupert Christiansen in the Daily Telegraph, June 7, 2010  praised  Connolly's Mary, singling out her "bringing the magnificent finale to a thrilling vocal and emotional climax", elsewhere he was rather less enthusiastic, finding the "staging and designs [] woefully inept". Rod McPhee, The Yorkshire Post, June 10,  2010, also found himself, by the second half,  longing for some major variation in the stage set but overall he found it "an absolute corker of an opera" , whose real credit "rests with Donizetti".  On the other hand, Andrew Clark in the Financial Times, June 8, 2010 wrote of an "exquisite staging" and after general praise for the singers concluded that "it’s another of Opera North’s strong company performances, stylishly conducted by Guido Johannes Rumstadt".

 

 

Elizabeth

 

Mary and Elizabeth

 

Mary

 

 

 

Page initially published in  2010