Verdi’s ‘King for a Day’ at Garsington

After Verdi’s success with his first opera Oberto at La Scala in Milan, he was immediately commissioned to write three more. The first of these was to be an opera buffa and he was given several libretti to read. None appealed so, as Verdi wrote later, he ended up choosing the least bad, Un giorno di regno (“King for a Day”).

It was tough going for Verdi in his early years as an opera composer. First his small daughter became ill and died, then just over a year later his son did too, followed less a year after that by his wife. Within two years the three people dearest to him had all died, and here was Verdi having to write an opera buffa, which became his only comedy before his final opera Falstaff fifty years later. Its audience reception was a disaster, and the opera was removed from the stage at La Scala after one performance, though contemporary reviews suggest this had far more to do with the singers than anything else.

The story concerns a historical Polish king, who lost his throne after a Saxon invasion, and regained it in 1733, before being losing it again in 1736 and going into exile in France. The opera is set in 1733 when the king returns to Poland, leaving a French officer, the Cavaliere di Belfiore (Joshua Hopkins), to impersonate him in France. The action takes place at a castle in western France belonging to Baron Kelbar (Henry Waddington), whose main concern is to marry his daughter Giulietta (Madison Leonard) to the wealthy financier La Rocca (Grant Doyle), though she prefers his nephew Edoardo (Oliver Sewell). Kelbar objects as Edoardo lacks money, and Belfiore as “King” offers La Rocca promotion if he will take a wealthy widow instead of Giulietta. This is all facilitated by the Marchesa (Christine Rice), who is Kelbar’s niece and engaged to Count Ivrea (Robert Murray). Lots of people and a complicated plot, but plenty of scope for singing and in a terrific cast at Garsington, Madison Leonard shone as Giulietta.

The situation becomes horribly confused until a message arrives for Belfiore from the real king saying he has arrived in Warsaw and Belfiore can drop the pretence. He can then declare his own love for the Marchesa, and two marriages ensue. It has often been said that the trouble with opera is that the music can be wonderful but the plots dreadful, which is certainly the case here. But Garsington Opera have produced a gloriously lively production by Christopher Alden, which the audience loved. Its main pretence is that the Kelbar Company are big arms manufacturers, a similar theme to the Royal Opera’s recent production of Rosenkavalier.

Under the baton of Tobias Ringborg, now back in harness after being indisposed, it was a musical delight. This early opera is already recognisably Verdi, but still owes a debt to Rossini and Donizetti. Congratulations to Garsington for putting it on, and providing opera lovers with what came before his first in the regular canon, Nabucco. From that point until Falstaff he took on very serious themes.

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