Blind lust: OFC provides worthy advocacy for Montemezzi’s problematic “Three Kings”
For many aficionados, Italo Montemezzi’s L’amore dei tre re is the holy grail of neglected Italian operas.
Premiered in 1913 at La Scala to mixed reviews, the opera saw its U.S. debut at the Met five years later with an all-star cast led by Enrico Caruso, Claudia Muzio and Pasquale Amato. The opera quickly became a repertory staple in the U.S. where it remained hugely popular for decades. After WWII, the opera’s performances waned and it soon dropped into near-total obscurity. Apart from two runs at Sarasota Opera (in 2003 and 2017) , the opera is rarely seen today.
Give credit to the enterprising Opera Festival of Chicago, which opened its fifth season with a revival of L’amore dei tre re (The Love of Three Kings) Friday night at the Athenaeum Center, the opera’s first local performance in 70 years.
Montemezzi’s sole hit has positive things going for it—some lovely choral writing in the final act and a restless, roiling orchestral part that at times rises to the sumptuousness of Strauss and Korngold.
Yet the opera also has its problems, namely a stilted and often jaw-dropping scenario. Archibaldo, the blind and elderly king of Altura, suspects his daughter-in-law Fiora of betraying his son Manfredo who is away at war. The king is not wrong since Fiora is, in fact, in a dalliance with Avito, the deposed heir to the Alturan throne. Further, as this staging makes clear, it’s not only Archibaldo’s well-founded suspicion of infidelity that account for his malevolence; he clearly desires Fiora for himself, as shown by Archibaldo’s repeated attempts to forcibly kiss her. (The king may be blind but he’s not dead.)
The opera reaches preposterous heights in the latter acts as Archibaldo murders Fiora and attempts to discover the identity of her lover by putting a fast-acting poison on the dead girl’s lips. The not-so-bright Avito falls for it at her funeral and kisses her, dying after confessing their forbidden love to the grief-stricken Manfredo. The prince in turn also kisses the dead Fiora so he can depart as well from this cruel life. Archibaldo, the worst blind character in opera, is the only one still breathing on a stage littered with corpses at the curtain.
In addition to the bizarro storyline, Sem Benelli’s libretto is rife with overwrought prose that makes for moments of inadvertent hilarity: “Sleep betrays me and like a molesting bee, plays with my eyelids.” “My nostrils dilate at the proud memory.” “Your mouth is a timeless flower; I pluck it continually and it always blooms again.” What the Franchetti?
One could forgive the dramatic and linguistic absurdities, which abound in the genre. The bigger issue is that Montemezzi’s vocal writing is almost wholly unmemorable. While his surging, richly upholstered orchestral music is attractive, the opera always seems on the brink of a melodic aria or duet that never arrives. Indeed, as Friday’s performance showed, it’s not the neglect of Three Kings that is hard to fathom, but rather how this opera ever achieved such great popularity in the first place.
Still, kudos to OFC for providing a solid cast and sturdy enough production to give Chicago opera fans an idea of the good and not-so-good qualities of this strange work.
Andrea Silvestrelli’s voice may be worn and dry of tone yet it suits the character of the old and visually impaired Archibaldo. The veteran bass still managed to bring sonorous power and a dramatic spark to the theatrical peaks, giving great ardor to Archibaldo’s Act I paean to his homeland (“Italia! Italia!”), the opera’s most famous aria. Also impressive was the towering singer easily picking up Maria Kanyova as the dead Fiora and carrying her offstage over his shoulder, as called for in the libretto.
Kanyova’s soprano is on the light side for this late verismo role yet she showed admirable stamina in tackling its myriad hurdles and the drawn-out scenes with Avito and Manfredo. Kanyova was always a dramatically credible figure as the conflicted and tragic victim, Fiora.
The strongest all-around singing came from OFC artistic director Franco Pomponi as Manfredo. The baritone brought real Italianate strength to his extended scene with Fiora and, like Kanyova, was always believable as a character despite the ludicrous situations.
Light voices are invariably the bane of smaller opera presenters and such was the case here with this production’s Avito. As Fiora’s lover, Andrew Morstein was distinctly underpowered, even for this smallish venue. While his voice showed fitful moments of youthful fire, the long impassioned scene with Fiora in Act II never got off the ground, largely due to the singer’s thin-toned instrument.
Matthew DiBattista displayed a flexible character tenor as Flamino, guard and guiding hand to Archibaldo. Jade Dasha, Aldo Alan and Viktoria Vizin sang well in supporting roles.
OFC general director Sasha Gerritson directed the often static action deftly amid the necessarily minimalist sets, managing to avoid any unwonted laughter. The OFC chorus, directed by Richard Robbins, was most impressive, bringing polished, well-blended ensemble to the crypt scene of Act III, which contains some of Montemezzi’s best music.
The Athenaeum has no pit and the sizable orchestra had to be stationed on the floor in front of the stage, inches from the front rows of patrons. Music director Emanuele Andrizzi directed Montemezzi’s surging music skillfully despite this handicap, eliciting committed and responsive playing from an ensemble full of Lyric Opera members and some of Chicago’s top freelancers.
Note: For those planning to attend Sunday’s matinee, try to sit in the balcony, which I and some colleagues moved to at intermission. While the sight lines aren’t quite as good from above, the orchestral sound was vastly improved with a gratifying distance—richer in tone and better blended than on the main floor.
L’Amore dei tre re will be repeated 2 p.m. Sunday at the Athenaeum Center. operafestivalchicago.org
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2 Responses to “Blind lust: OFC provides worthy advocacy for Montemezzi’s problematic “Three Kings” ”
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Posted May 10, 2025 at 3:48 pm by RP
I was there – the orchestra was lovely but VERY loud. Balance is very difficult to achieve. I didn’t have that issue at all with the tenor, who I thought sounded really beautiful and strong. I was in the balcony though.
Great chorus and orchestra and beautiful lighting
Posted May 10, 2025 at 4:23 pm by Isam Nasr
I agree with everything in this article. I was waiting and waiting for an aria or a duet to wow me but alas it didn’t happen.
I enjoyed it nonetheless and was glad to support my neighborhood theater.