Mary Stuart    Ann Murray
Elizabeth      Susan Parry
Leicester      John Hudson
Talbot         Gwynne Howell
Cecil          Ashley Holland
Hannah Kennedy Sandra Ford

Conductor      Jean-Yves Ossonce
Director       Gale Edwards

Donizetti's Mary Stuart looks like a very odd thing for the ENO to do.
There aren't any obvious bel canto specialists in the house company, and
they can't afford any of the usual suspects required to deliver the major
roles in the accustomed style. But Ann Murray as Mary is like a whirlwind
at the heart of a production that is economical in every sense. The
audience, filling the more expensive seats, rattling about in the gallery,
seemed to like it, though the reviews have been lukewarm.

The production is decidedly austere. The mainly black and white set
consists of a chequered floor, a table on casters which serves as a
platform, bed and even a table, and stage-high reproductions of a letter
(in English) from Elizabeth to Mary, which divide the stage in various
ways. The costumes, designed by Jasper Conran, are mainly black and white
low-detail Elizabethan, with Elizabeth in a red dress in act 1, appearing
in a black dress with a huge collar like a sinister butterfly at the end,
and Mary in a red velvet dress for her execution. The second scene of act 1
has the chorus in brown costumes and autumn leaves on the set. The obvious
reason for Elizabeth and Mary to hate each other is that their wigs are
clashing shades of red.

Gale Edwards general approach is similarly minimal, apparently taking the
lowest common denominator between historical "truth" and the libretto.
Leicester and Cecil are nearly indistinguishable in characterization and
costume. Although Mary wears a crucifix, her and Talbot's catholicism is
nearly absent. He becomes an amiable old gent who offers premortal
counselling and helps her die at peace with herself. There's no sense of a
martyred Magdalene or matron, which is surely what Donizetti had in mind
for his mainly catholic audience. The programme contains a note that
sixteen years have passed between acts 1 and 2, and Elizabeth appears
without her wig looking horribly old at the start of act 2. But she refers
to the act 1 meeting as if it had just happened.

Murray is presumably doing Mary because Janet Baker did, and I'd guess that
the result is similar in some ways. Though definitely not a conventional
bel canto singer, Murray often sings beautifully, getting every last
decoration spot on. And her outburst against Elizabeth at the end of act 1
was scary. Similarly, she sang the last two scenes, where she confesses and
blesses the peopl before she dies, with an intensity that made the
performance true to the spirit of the work if not the performance
tradition. Gwynne Howell made a moving contribution to the confession
scene, restoring to it in his singing some of the spirituality that would
otherwise be missing.

Susan Parry as Elizabeth looked great, tall and gothic, but seemed insecure
at times. This was fine dramatically. But insecurity in this sort of music
is a bit of a dead loss. Neither Leicester nor Cecil was particularly
exciting or dramatic either.

In fact, the best performance apart from Murray's came from Wendy Ebworth,
the sign interpreter, who communicated the feelings of the characters
rather more effectively than most of the singers did. She is amazing,
getting over not just (presumably) the words in sign, but also the
emotional content and even, wonderfully, the shape and rhythm of the music.