'I puritani' review — Richard Jones pulls out all the stops with this sensational cast

Read our review of Bellini's opera I puritani, now in performances at the Royal Opera House to 19 July.

Summary

• Bellini's I puritani gets a major revival at the Royal Opera House
• Richard Jones's new production features a luxurious cast
• Lisette Oropesa is a superlative Elvira
• Excellent too are Andrzej Filończyk; Francesco Dumero and Idebrando D’Arcangelo

Bellini’s I Puritani, first performed in Paris in 1835, ends with cries of “Glory be to Cromwell!” and a happy ending brought about by the Lord Protector’s benevolence, yet it was Queen Victoria’s favourite opera. Despite the anti-royalist sentiments, the piece features plenty of angst that may have appealed to the romantic-minded teenager that she was when she first saw it, and, following the death of her beloved Albert and her prolonged period of mourning, she may well have identified with the heroine Elvira’s fragmented mental state.

Richard Jones’s new production marks the first time that I Puritani has been performed at Covent Garden in over 30 years and, plot wise, it isn’t hard to see why it’s been kept away from the stage. The contrived melodrama is hard for modern audiences to swallow and, as historical fiction, it’s risible, even for the age of Sir Walter Scott (it suggests that the Civil War didn’t begin until after the execution of Charles I and that the widowed Queen Henrietta Maria – Marcela Rahal is given the young Queen Victoria’s signature hairstyle – was also in danger of losing her head). But what it does have to offer is sumptuous bel canto, and Jones has pulled out all the stops with the luxurious opening cast, brilliantly conducted by Riccardo Frizza.

While it features a backdrop of Puritans and Cavaliers, the personal is much more prominent than the political here. Aristocratic Puritan maiden Elvira’s engagement to the Cavalier Lord Arturo Talbo has been called off due to sectarian differences and she’s being forced to marry Puritan commander Sir Riccardo Forth instead. Then the wedding to Arturo is on again. Before she can walk down the aisle, however, a misunderstanding involving her intended and another veiled woman in white drives her to madness.

There is a superlative performance by Lisette Oropesa as Elvira, whose coloratura is diamond-like in its purity and brilliance, yet the trills she produces never feel like mere display. She is the perfect proto-Pre-Raphaelite heroine and Oropesa makes her feel like a human being as well as a symbol of feminine fragility.

Riccardo, the rival, is introduced before the hero Arturo, and he is the more compelling character as performed by Andrzej Filończyk. Arturo himself is sung with tremendous purity by Francesco Demuro (while wearing striped trousers). The icing on the wedding cake is the mesmerising bass baritone Ildebrando D’Arcangelo, who couldn’t be more saturnine as Elvira’s uncle and father figure Giorgio.

The costuming (by Nicky Gillibrand) leans towards the 19th century, though Elvira’s wedding dress is pure 1980s and the military tabards are cod-medieval. The action is set in a grey stone fortress (set design by Hyemi Shin), briefly prettied with floral garlands for the wedding that doesn’t come to fruition. As this is a Richard Jones production, there is some anachronistic technology with a giant headlamp in the final act.

Bellini died eight months after the premiere aged 33 and I Puritani doesn’t come around often. Once in a lifetime may well be enough but, for sensational singing, this is an opportunity to seize.

I puritani is at the Royal Opera House to 19 July. Book I puritani tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

Photo credit: I puritani (Photos by Tristram Kenton)