Interview: Jeremy Silver talks about staging Dalinda, Donizetti’s “lost opera” in Cape Town

Opera UCT has made world opera news by being selected to stage the first full-scale production of Gaetano Donizetti’s Dalinda at the Baxter Theatre, Cape Town, September 4 – 8, 2024. Opera UCT’s director Professor Jeremy Silver talks about the world premiere of the ‘lost’ opera, which was retrieved in in 2019 and reconstructed an he gives insights into the opera:

TCR: Ambra Sorrentino of Opera Co-Pro has given Opera UCT the opportunity to present the world premiere of Dalinda – a full staging. How did this come about – that a university opera school was selected by Opera Co-Pro (the global market place of opera)?

Jeremy Silver: Ambra Sorrentino of Opera Co-Pro was aware of two very successful Donizetti revivals which I had conducted in the UK in 2013 and 2015: L’assedio di Calais, and Il Furioso all’isola di San Domingo.  My interest in this composer, the excellent reputation of many of our alumni in Europe, and the success of Opera UCT as a professional-level company in its own right prompted her to contact me. She asked if we would be interested in being one of several companies around the world to mount the first ever staged production of Dalinda.  After delving into the nature of the opera, I knew that our singers and infrastructure could do great justice to the work.  It has been a happy outcome that we are not just one of a group of companies, but that we have ended up giving the absolute stage premiere of the opera!

TCR: Dalinda was lost for two centuries. It must be thrilling for Opera UCT to be getting its teeth into this “lost opera”?

JS: It has been thrilling to put a new work by a well-loved composer under the microscope and to discover different facets of his genius.  Knowing that he wrote the opera as a new version of a previous opera which was banned by the censors, it has given us a fascinating insight into his thought processes as a composer and to witness him transforming one piece into another.  It is also a huge responsibility to present a work with no performing tradition of its own, as our choices represent the beginning of a new tradition.

TCR: Italian director, William Costabile Cisco is directing. Bulgarian costume designer, Leticia Parvoleta Ivanova is doing the costumes. How did this come about – that you have this international creative team on board? 

JS: We are working on this production as partners with Opera Co-Pro.  As Ambra Sorrentino always envisaged that this production would be seen in various places around the world. She proposed the two European members of the team early on in the planning.  However, we always agreed that, as the absolute premiere is in Cape Town, it made sense to use South African set and lighting designers with specialised knowledge of the Baxter Theatre.  And who better than Michael Mitchell and Kobus Rossouw to fulfil these two key roles? 

TCR: Can you give insights into the design – set and costumes?

JS:  The original story of the opera is set in the Middle East during the third crusade.  Yet against a political narrative with strong roots in historical events, the personal story of the characters takes centre stage, and the emotional turmoil resulting from their interaction.  Consequently, it was decided not to place the opera in a totally realistic historical or geographical setting, but to include beautiful references to Islamic design in both the set and the costumes of the middle-eastern characters.  Decoration creatively derived from Arabic and Syriac calligraphy appears on some of the walls, while the costumes have sufficient elements of Muslim and Christian design to differentiate characters. 

TCR: You say that in Dalinda, there “is a deeply evocative exploration of human emotion and ‘truth’ – whether to tell and what to tell – and the consequences. Unusual for a 19^th century work, it also offers a remarkably detailed interplay between the characters. Exploring the tension between the private and public life of Dalinda, a mother and political leader, this opera is a timely story for now with lessons for all of us.” Can you elaborate on that?

JS: It is often remarked that the operas of Verdi from later on in the 19^th century frequently focus on the tension between public duty and private feeling.  Yet this opera by Verdi’s most illustrious predecessor explores a similar universal theme. Dalinda is the infamous wife of a feared Muslim leader, the daughter of an assassin-lord, and the estranged mother to a Christian knight.  On one hand she is on the front line fighting the enemy.  On the other, she is overcome with emotion when she meets her son for the first time since he was a baby.  He doesn’t know her, and her fear that he might reject her, allied to her need to hide her past from her fierce husband and her compatriots, invite us to identify with every small psychological step she takes in slowly revealing her identity. 

TCR: Insights into the opera – Donizetti’s music, style?

JS: I have a particular fascination for the music of Donizetti and the most appropriate performance style for his music.  Standing as he does between the more formulaic writing of his predecessor, Rossini, and the dramatic flair of Verdi, I constantly discover innovation and inventiveness in his music which has only been partly appreciated before.  He breaks structural convention in search of dramatic truth and he extends the harmonic palette of his orchestra to find new emotional colours for his characters. He also invents in Dalinda and Lucrezia Borgia (the opera which preceded Dalinda) a way to show the characters being superficially polite and courteous to each other while probing each other for information or even hiding their anger.  This ability to multi-layer emotion, behaviour and intention has a dramatic richness which Verdi adopted in his later operas.

I am also fascinated by performance style, and have long come to the conclusion that the frequent approach to Donizetti’s music which centres on the superficial formulas of Rossini can rob Donizetti’s music of depth and seriousness.  This is often masked or substituted by a fascination with the more gymnastic features of singers’ high notes or fast runs.  I prefer to place Donizetti in the international context of his age.  Our approach to the music of Schubert, Schumann and Chopin at best responds to and amplifies the depth of their Romantic emotional and intellectual sensibilities.  Playing Donizetti with the same care over phrasing, harmony and tonal colour places his music for me in a totally different realm.

TCR: Under 18s will be able to see Dalinda – without paying for a ticket. How does this work? Just pitch up at the door or book through webtickets?

JS: We are proud to bring this initiative to our performances for the first time.  We think it will benefit young people as well as families for whom the purchase of a large number of tickets is a bar to access.  Tickets should be booked though Webtickets, and there are free Under 18 options in all areas of the theatre.

TCR: Anything else to add about the staging of Dalinda?

JS: We have double cast, with both brilliant casts comprising a mixture of current Opera UCT singers and alumni or guests.  Anyone who wants to witness extraordinary young talent should come and see Dalinda.  Our performances often represent the last chance to hear the cream of our singers for many years, as many go straight from our doors to important international placements.

✳ Featured image Molly Dzangare and Luvo Maranti in Opera UCT’ staging of Gaetano Donizetti’s Dalinda at the Baxter Theatre, Cape Town, September 4 – 8, 2024. Pic supplied by Opera UCT.