Leipzig Opera: Learning Power from “Mary, Queen of Scots”

Things were better in France. During Mary’s first appearance as queen at her Scottish court, a dance song from the time of her happy youth in exile can be heard. But now the 18-year-old has to (and wants to) rule. The title must suffice as a power base for the time being. And who can she rely on?

Her brother James, the former Regent and Earl of Moray, shows suspicious ambition and has just had a competitor thrown into prison. The Earl of Bothwell is ready to support her with his army – but if the queen accepts this offer, won’t she submit to his power? Finally, Lord Darnley appears to be the only one standing out from the group of those in power. He celebrates, he dances, he doesn’t bend the rules. He is correspondingly hated. Mary will marry him, not for her own benefit.

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A history piece as an opera? This doesn’t fit into any current fashion, but it does arouse interest in the evening, especially since the Leipzig Opera is daring to do something unusual and clever. Today’s stages like to adorn themselves with premieres. A few works from the second half of the 20th century at least have an existence on the fringes of the repertoire. Thea Musgrave’s composition, on the other hand, attracted attention after its premiere in 1977, but seemed forgotten in recent decades.

Wrongfully so, as it turns out. The Gewandhausorchester Leipzig under Matthias Foremny shows the qualities of the score. The piece lasts a long time (about three hours with breaks) and never feels tedious. The scenic and musical dramaturgy is tight. Musgrave knows how to set necessary rest points, but there is tension. The plot and the music escalate the conflicts station by station, and the chamber orchestral line-up that the composer uses always unleashes considerable volume.

The music doesn’t reveal itself casually, but it aims at communication with the audience. Musgrave hardly ever leaves the framework of traditional expressive characters. Meanwhile, she concentrates the templates and shortens the sequences. The vocal ensembles skilfully condense the contradictions. Where Musgrave recomposes music in the style of the period, for example Mary and Darnley move to Renaissance-style dances, no postmodern patchwork is created. She incorporates the pseudo-old into her style. For all its diversity, her music is as closed as the world that Mary finds herself in and in which she has to assert herself. The Leipzig rediscovery proves that it is possible to create something new using traditional means.

What is the purpose of this new thing? There was talk of a history piece above, but on closer inspection that doesn’t apply to the matter. The reason is less that Amalia Elguera’s play, on which the opera is based, and subsequently Musgrave’s libretto deviate significantly from the course of history. This is not uncommon in dramas and operas with historical material. Rather, it is striking how fleetingly the conditions for political action are sketched out. And even given this little information, the actions on stage are, from a pragmatic standpoint, mostly unusually stupid. Obviously it is less about analyzing political processes. Rather, characters are tested in the face of situations.

This can also be socially significant. Mary is a woman and is confronted with powerful men. According to director Ilaria Lanzino in the program notes, Mary represents a “new style of power, anti-authoritarian, transparent, liberal, feminine.” A look at reality, from Margaret Thatcher to Giorgia Meloni, reveals this to be an illusion. Women are not better than men and don’t have to be. Fortunately, the opera and the production are smarter than the talk about it. When Mary learns to use power, it certainly seems like progress from her initial naivety.

And the men don’t just represent the patriarchy as cardboard comrades. Elguera’s piece is called “Moray.” The title character is Mary’s brother, who initially supports her loyally, but then changes. Rejected as too selfish and ambitious, he decides to become truly selfish. Musgrave’s opera, despite the shift in emphasis in the title to the sister, preserves this conflict. Otherwise the dramatic tension that arises on the Leipzig stage would not be possible. The characterization gives all characters their reasons; even Lord Darnley, the apparent softie who turns out to be the worst of them all.

Nicole Chevalier is expressive in the title role, but never overdone. Particularly worthy of praise are the people who stepped in due to illness and sang from the edge of the stage with little time to prepare, while, in keeping with the production, mute substitutes acted as stage actors: Jonathan Michie as James, Eberhard Francesco Lorenz as Earl of Bothwell. Even with the best of luck, something like this is always only an emergency solution. The fact that a fascinating performance was achieved despite these obstacles speaks for the work and the production.

Next performances: January 12th, January 28th, February 11th

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