This is about as unconventional and controversial as an opera video can get. Opinions on it range from wildly enthusiastic to uncompromisingly negative, with little in between. I find it extraordinarily powerful and (once some mental adjustments are made) theatrically convincing. Maria Stuarda, an opera by Donizetti based on a play by Schiller, exists in two rather different editions--from 1834 and 1835. Both are represented musically in parts of this production, with considerable rewriting by Bonynge (as was done in Donizetti's time) to show off the spectacular voices of Sutherland and Tourangeau. As if that was not complicated enough, this 1988 production, a joint project of Czech and German television, uses the 1975 Decca recording for its music, with Czech performers doing skilled lip synchronization. In nonmusical connecting passages, they synchronize to Schiller's original German script. For full enjoyment, you have to expand the usual "suspension of disbelief" to cover frequent shifts between spoken German and sung Italian, in which you never hear the actual voices of the people you see on the screen. Not a promising description, but it works like a charm. The Czech actors, the German speaking voices, and the recorded singers are all first-class and Petr Weigl has blended their efforts with dazzling skill. Most hard-core opera fans, who have already accepted the concept of two British queens singing at one another in Italian, should be able to handle the whole package. The story (of the condemnation and execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, by her rival, Queen Elizabeth I) is a powerful one, and both Schiller and Donizetti have exploited it for all its worth. The central scene--a face-to-face confrontation between Mary and Elizabeth--never actually happened, but it makes crackling drama, and in this production it has enormous impact. --Joe McLellan
