What more could any one want in grand opera—abundant arias, duets, cabalettas and scenas, plus choruses, opulence, a melodious score, and three superlative lead voices? Plus political intrigue and intimations of infidelity. In addition, Queen Elizabeth the First (QE1) played as much as a harridan as a hurricane leading the vocal fireworks in a Maria-Callas-like role. This one scores  A+ in these departments.

This was Donizetti’s historical opera “Roberto Devereux” (1837) at the S.F. Opera, a work that curiously was shelved for close to a century. Why? It was a victim of both nationalism and Donizetti’s overproduction, representing the 57th of some 70 operas. Here was  an Italian opera about a very British theme premiered in Paris, a century-plus before the EU was a glimmer in Europe’s eye. The work was taken up successfully circa 1970 by the legendary New York soprano Beverly Sills, but only once at the SFO, with Montserrat Caballé as the monarch in 1979.

The essential plot: QE1 loves the doomed Roberto who loves Sara who  alas is married to Nottingham, the malevolent who prevents a stay of Roberto’s execution.

Encountered Sept. 8, QE1 was more than a vehicle for the formidable American coloratura soprano Sondra Radvanovsky, with a well-channeled, booming voice probably audible beyond the Golden Gate; it was also a dramatic tour de force for an imperious queen,  this time played innovatively as a twitchy, balding  figure close to end-of-life. She was by turns furied as well as enfeebled. Her extra-age element introduced by Radvanovsky and Stage Director Stephen Lawless, ending with her, a pathetic figure meandering blankly  in a nightgown, was both effective and plausible theater.

This was a mobile all-star cast. I suspect that Russell Thomas (Roberto) had taken on Luciano Pavarotti as his role model in opera. As a black tenor, he could master the super-role that Pavarotti had identified as brutally punishing and become the foremost Verdi Otello of our times. Thomas’ voice is pleasing, robust, and assertive, bringing down the house with his catchy swan-song aria in death row, “Bagnato in sen di lagrime” (With My Breast Bathed in Tears),  one of several astute additions by the composer in an 1838 reprise. Also of note was the voluptuous voice (after first-scene warmup) of mezzo Jamie Barton as the victimized other woman Sara.

But this was first and foremost the QE1 show, with Radvanovsky playing  both the forceful and fading scenes like a born actress, her coloratura ranging over two-plus octaves and rattling the rafters. After this triumph, who else will dare play the queen again??

Riccardo Frizza conducted with poise and feeling and brought off powerful duets. Of note in this lavish Canadian Opera production were the enveloping palatial three-story set designed by the late Benoit Dugardyn, and the overture pantomime of British war-ship models, overseen by a dying QE1.

MUSIC NOTES—Donizetti, in some ways the most prolific opera composer of all time, was neatly summarized once by local impresario Donald Pippin in introducing a performance, tongue in cheek: “Donizetti was frustrated. He hadn’t written a single opera in two weeks….” The same lead trio of singers had played the 2014 “Norma” here as well…The SFO’s Music Director Nicola Luisotti terminated his tenure last summer, and still no replacement has been found.

DONIZETTI’S “ROBERTO DEVEREUX,” in Italian, at the S.F. Opera, running Sept. 8-27. Duration 2:45; one intermission. For info: (415) 864-3330, or go online.

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