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Compact and Fast-moving
Verdi's 'Alzira' at the Buxton Festival
impresses MIKE WHEELER
'One of the composer's two or three least-performed operas' is how Roger Parker, in Grove's Dictionary, describes Verdi's Alzira. That may suggest justified neglect, but in fact the work is more interesting than that. Verdi, at this early stage of his career, may not have had the authority to order his librettists about that he acquired later, but the opera is compact and fast-moving (in this production — Buxton Opera House, Buxton, UK, 7 July 2018 — about two hours, including interval), and we can witness him honing his technique for delineating character and situation, and for steering the dramatic tension, as in the carefully-structured Act I finale...
Copyright © 13 July 2018
Mike Wheeler,
Derby UK
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