Un giorno di regno, Garsington Opera review — Verdi comic rarity gets worthwhile revival

How did they know? Garsington Opera’s production of Verdi’s comic opera Un giorno di regno (King for a Day) opens with the Polish football team snatching victory with a hat-trick in the 89th minute. A day later, the real-life England sealed a last-gasp place in the quarter-finals of the Euros in extra time — what serendipity!

Verdi would have been surprised to find football turning up in one of his operas. Then again, he would probably be amazed to learn that Un giorno di regno, his second opera (he was 26 at the time), is being performed at all. The premiere in 1840 was such a flop that it was immediately taken off the stage. Performances today are rare birds.

By setting the opera in the here and now, director Christopher Alden manages to convince us that it still has life. Belfiore, the titular king, finds himself wrestling with the brutish head of the powerful Kelbar defence company. The production teases out a theme of women’s rights, when Kelbar tries to force two women into marriages they do not want, and there is a timely photo-parade of dictatorial leaders from Julius Caesar to a hilarious snap of Donald Trump.

Given how weak the plot is, Alden has pulled out all the stops. It was a clever idea to have running 24-hour news reports that explain the many twists in the story, but the humour is harder to find. The production’s high point is a spaghetti fight that was slapstick gone mad, though it had the audience in stitches.

As Belfiore, Joshua Hopkins fields a baritone voice of class. The put-upon women are Madison Leonard’s bright-voiced Giulietta and Christine Rice, showing off a wide vocal range as the marchioness. Henry Waddington and Grant Doyle do not hold back in the spaghetti duel of Kelbar and the treasurer. There are contrasting tenors in Robert Murray’s Count and the promising Oliver Sewell as Edoardo. The Philharmonia Orchestra under conductor Chris Hopkins gets the music to sparkle. It is unlikely a more successful performance of Un giorno di regno will come round soon.

★★★★☆

To July 22, garsingtonopera.org

As none of England’s summer opera festivals receives a government grant, it seems reasonable to assume they would avoid risk-taking. In fact, the opposite is true: a few days after Garsington presented Verdi’s second opera, Opera Holland Park entered the fray with Edgar, the equally rare second opera by Puccini.

This was also a flop at its 1889 premiere, though Puccini kept labouring at revisions of the work. The unimaginably clunky libretto tells of conflicted Edgar, who is caught between love for two women, the pure Fidelia and the debauched Tigrana — early examples of the opposing kinds of female characters who occur often in Puccini’s operas.

The twists and turns of the plot, including Edgar burning down his house and seemingly coming back from the dead for the final showdown, are so unconvincing that one feels embarrassed when the opera touches the heart — but that is the power of music. At least in this 1905 version, completed after La bohème and Tosca, the opera is touching hands with the mature Puccini and the emotions soar in the later stages.

Opera Holland Park nominally offers a semi-staging, but director Ruth Knight provides everything the opera needs, including atmosphere as night falls.

Three Holland Park regulars — Peter Auty as Edgar, Anne Sophie Duprels and Gweneth Ann Rand as the contrasting women — offer good value and Julien Van Mellaerts is a sturdy Frank. Naomi Woo, conducting the City of London Sinfonia, keeps Puccini’s heartfelt music centre stage, where it belongs in this opera. Here is another rarity worth catching.

★★★★☆

To July 6, operahollandpark.com