One Day as King - One Evening of Fun. Verdi's Un Giorno di Regno at Garsington Opera

It's hard to believe that this early opera buffa by Verdi was unpopular when first performed in 1840. It's exuberant, fizzing with vitality and good tunes, gives the lead singers plenty of opportunity to display their vocal power and skill, and it has a happy ending.

It has been revived successfully several times in the last couple of years, and this production shows that it can be sparkling entertainment as well as delightful music.

The plot is not really complicated. The exiled King Stanislas Leszczynski wants to return to Poland incognito and reclaim his former throne, so he asks Belfiore to impersonate him in his court-in-exile in Lorraine. Well, wouldn't you?

While pretending to be a king, Belfiore sorts out the love problems of his young friend Edoardo who is in love with Giulietta, whose father Baron Kelbar is intent on marrying her to Edoardo's rich uncle. Clear? The only hitch is the arrival of Belfiore's own erstwhile lover the Marchesa di Poggio, who recogizes him. A spirited young widow, who fancies a second marriage, this time of her own choosing, she does not give his secret away, but manipulates the situation to finally get him to propose. 

Verdi worked a lot of polka rhythms - a bouncy Polish dance - into the Overture and the score, which fizzes with jollity and good humour. The style is more like Rossini or Donizetti than mature Verdi and at many points, the music verges into parody. When Baron Kelbar confronts his daughter and insists she marries the rich, middle-aged Rocca, Verdi actually uses harpsichord continuo, as if to say, "Really, what an old chestnut of a plot, are we in the last century?" And the arias, while enticingly melodic, do indulge in rubato and extended cadenzas to just a slightly absurd extent.

The singers are all so good it seems unfair to single any of them out, but we can revel in two lead tenors, Joshua Hopkins as the knavish Belfiore and Oliver Sewell as the more romantic Edoardo. The female leads are well contrasted, Madison Leonard whose soprano voice thrilled in the role of Giulietta, and Christine Rice in the more complex mezzo role of the Marchesa. The Baron and Rocca were splendidly absurd.

Special congratulations go to Chris Hopkins, who stepped in as conductor of the Philharmonia at the last moment owing to Tobias Ringborg suffering an injury.

Stanislas Leszczynski was a real king, whose daughter married Louis XV of France. He became somewhat legendary in his own lifetime. He is the fifth of the six de-throned monarchs met by Candide in Voltaire's story, on their way to the Venice Carnival. He says, "I have lost my kingdom twice over, but Providence has given me another realm (Lorraine) where I have achieved more good than any Sarmation King ever did on the banks of the Vistula." 

So he was remembered as a benign figure, and hence stories and myths like this farcical plot were woven around him. 

This terrific production is now sold out but I predict it will be revived and there will be more chances to hear this too long neglected musical romp.  

For list of full cast and credits see:

https://garsingtonopera.org/whats-on/un-giorno-di-regno/#cast-creative-team