L’Amore dei tre Re; Macbeth
Montemezzi’s L’amore dei tre Re has had a puzzling history. It was first performed at La Scala in 1913 and was quite successful; far more successful under Toscanini at the New York Met, until after the second world war, and a fair number of performances elsewhere, often as a vehicle for one of the great lyric sopranos. In 1952 it suddenly disappeared from the repertoire, and revivals since have been increasingly rare. As so often, Opera Holland Park has come to the rescue. With what seems to be a guaranteed audience, it can stage what it likes, and it likes so-called verismo operas, though the label is absurd almost whenever it is applied, and certainly in this case.
L’amore was magnificently performed, though the production could have been more helpful. The minimalist flight of steps and Appia-style flat surfaces serve well, but having 20th-century uniforms for the men robbed the work of its heavily medieval atmosphere, even if its Middle Ages bear scant relationship to anything that actually happened.
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