OF Donizetti’s 65 operas, only about seven command a regular place in the repertory. Pia de’ Tolomei (Pia of Tolomei) is not one of them, but it has many plus points and duly enjoyed an enthusiastic full house last Friday.
The story comes from Dante’s Divine Comedy and is a cross between Romeo & Juliet and Othello. Pia, a Guelf, is married to Nello, a Ghibelline, but has proved irresistible to her brother-in-law Ghino, a rare tenor baddie. The two families are inevitably involved in a bloody vendetta.
Tricked by Ghino into believing that his wife is being unfaithful, Nello orders her to be poisoned if he sends no message to the contrary. The message comes too late, the poison is extremely slow-acting and she takes most of Act 2 – there are only two – to die. Ghino gets his comeuppance with mortal wounds in battle, and everyone is left miserable.
In James Conway’s taut, essentially "mediaeval" production, the work’s first UK staging, Elena Xanthoudakis gave a nicely poised Pia in a fluent, if light, soprano. Her duet with her brother Rodrigo – mezzo Catherine Carby in a trouser role – and her prolonged demise were highlights. Carby’s aria was memorably focused, a fine sound.
Grant Doyle’s forceful, jealous Nello and John-Colyn Gyeantey’s accurate but monochrome Nello were less theatrically persuasive. John Andrews kept an admirably tight rein on his orchestra, whose winds were particularly lithe. A satisfying adventure. ETO, please keep coming.
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