North opera star Sarah Connolly performs in Mary Stuart

Jun 22 2010 by David Whetstone, The Journal

A CLASH between Queens will ensure sparks fly at the Theatre Royal this week. DAVID WHETSTONE talks to Opera North star Sarah Connolly.

ONE of the most dramatic episodes in English history is recalled in the opera Mary Stuart which will be performed twice in Newcastle this week.

Donizetti’s opera is concerned with the relationship between Mary Stuart – or Mary, Queen of Scots, as she is better known – and Elizabeth I.

Based on a play written in 1800 by the German playwright Friedrich Schiller, it departs from historical fact by including a tense scene in which the two women meet.

They never actually did although attempts were made to set up a meeting when Mary was keen to establish herself as Elizabeth’s heir.

Probably as widely known as the fact of Henry VIII’s six wives is that Mary was executed on the order of Elizabeth, who had kept her prisoner for years, although it seems she had regrets about the death sentence.

Mary was beheaded on February 8, 1587, at Fotheringhay Castle, Northamptonshire, at the age of 44. Elizabeth lived on for another 16 years.

Singing the part of Mary in a new production of the opera for Opera North is celebrated mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly who spent part of her childhood in County Durham.

Refreshing honesty being part of Sarah’s policy, she concedes that there is such a thing as boring music in opera and Mary Stuart is not without its less gripping moments.

But this is by way of a compliment, for she adds that at least 80% of the music is beautiful. “For a bel canto opera, that is quite an achievement,” she says.

“The music alone holds the attention for 80% of the time and for the remaining 20%, it’s up to us, as the singers and actors, to make it interesting.”

The phrase “bel canto”, incidentally, is generally taken to be a description of operatic music admired more for its beauty than for its dramatic impact.

I remember being entranced by a Scottish Opera production of Mary Stuart at Newcastle Theatre Royal quite a few years ago so wouldn’t want anyone to be put off this production, directed by Antony McDonald and sung in Italian with an English translation.

Sarah says the opera and the play on which it is based are interesting because they offer a European take on English history.

“I think Schiller and Donizetti captured the spirit of Mary and Elizabeth and it is interesting to wonder what would have happened if they had actually met.