Linbury Studio, Royal Opera

20th October

Rita is so seldom performed, it is likely that most of the audience would not have known even of its existence, let alone seen a performance. At just fifty minutes long, with three characters, it seemed an ideal choice for the Jette Parker Young Artists’ Programme’s Meet the Young Artists Week, which typically contains one staged opera, and a series of concerts and recitals.

In many ways, it was ideal. It was short, and it was amusing. Young Artist Thomas Guthrie’s decision to set the opera in a 1950s pub was undeniably successful, and Kevin Knight’s designs suited the opera’s comedy admirably well. However, in some ways, it was perhaps a shame that a more conventional setting was not used. This could well be, for many people, their only opportunity to see Donizetti’s little-known opera, as it is too short for the repertory of an opera company in anything other than these particular circumstances, and has no obvious partner in the tradition of Cavalleria rusticana and I pagliacci. So perhaps it would have been more satisfying still to have seen it, on this occasion, as Donizetti had intended it to be seen.

Anita Watson, singing the title role of Rita, made a very favourable impression from the outset, walking onto the stage with great confidence. However, at least for those who had not examined the programme in detail, there were three immediate surprises: one, tat Miss Watson was speaking to us, rather than singing; secondly, that there appeared to be no surtitles, and thirdly that she was speaking in Italian.

To be fair to the Royal Opera House, they had endeavoured to make it clear on the front of the programme that the opera would be performed thus, and within the programme was not only a detailed synopsis, but also some Italian vocabulary to aid the understanding. But it is the policy of all the Primi Divi, excepting possibly Madam Caterpillar, not to read the synopsis of an unfamiliar opera, and, rather, to follow the story as it enfolds onstage. Therefore we had not the slightest idea that there would be no surtitles – and, by the time we did realise it, the lights were already dimmed to such an extent that reading the synopsis was impossible.

It is a mark of the success of the production and the performers that the surtitles were not largely necessary, although one could hardly blame the very young lady sitting near the Primi Divi for repeatedly asking her father what was happening - and those who were seated close enough to hear the father’s quiet and concise explanations probably benefited from them as much as his daughter. Perhaps the Royal Opera might have made it clearer beforehand how the opera was to be presented - although, I must confess, it is difficult to know what else they could have done to draw our attention to it. And it was, in many ways, not so very different from listening to a piece of instrumental music: many such tell a story, and one can only rely on one’s imagination to determine which parts of the story are being related at which particular moment. Having said that, this manner of performamce is not what one expects at a modern opera house.

To those fortunate enough to know even a little Italian, Anita Watson’s clear and expressive delivery of the text was a great help; even to those who knew no Italian, her body language and tone of voice appeared to communicate considerably more than I would have expected. If the other two members of the cast, Haoyin Xue and Krzysztof Szumanski, were slightly less easy to understand, Miss Watson had ensured by her spirited opening to the opera that her audience was sufficiently engaged to listen as closely as possible. Her singing was no less exceptional: a powerful, rich sound that is equally well suited to the later moments of the opera, when a gentler characterisation of Rita is necessary, as to the more strident beginnings. I look forward very much to her future performances at the Royal Opera House.

There was also much to admire in the performances of the two gentlemen. Of Haoyin Xue I heard comparatively little during his first year on the Programme, but his performance at the Young Artists’ concert at the end of the 2006-07 season showed him to be very comfortable in the bel canto repertory. The role of Rita’s husband, Beppe, displayed his considerable abilities still further: it comprises of many challenging passages that took Mr Xue up to an unusually pleasant C sharp,

Krzysztof Szumanski, in the role of Rita’s first husband, Gasparo, was also exellent. His flexible bass-baritone, combined with the ability to be apparently effortlessly amusing, show Mr Szumanski to be perhaps even more ideally suited to bel canto than he seems to be to every other musical style in which I have heard him sing. An astonishingly versatile and gifted performer.

My only reservations on the opera in general concern the subject matter, which is rather less acceptable and consequently rather less amusing in contemporary times than it was when it was written. Whilst married to Gasparo, Rita was a victim of domestic violence; in a turn of events which is actually rather tragic, Rita now beats her second husband Beppe. All is resolved when Gasparo, little realising he as advising the second husband of the spouse he had believed dead, advises Beppe in how a wife must be controlled, and his instructions do, sadly, include the use of violence.

However, there is still much to enjoy in Rita: other than the music, which is Donizetti’s music showing him at his wittiest, if not his most inspired, the horror of Rita and Gasparo as they each discovered the other was, after all, still alive, was beautifully performed by Miss Watson and Mr Szumanski; the desperate attempts of Gasparo and Beppe not to remain with Rita throughout a series of games was another memorable episode. All in all, an excellent performance of a much-underrated opera.

Barry Tone

primi-divi at hotmail.co.uk