Un Giorno di Regno review – fizzing revival of Verdi’s failed comedy

Garsington Opera, Wormsley Estate, Stokenchurch
While it might have been cancelled after the premiere in 1840, Christopher Alden’s frenetic staging, an effervescent Philharmonia Orchestra and a fine cast show there’s a decent evening’s entertainment in there

Verdi’s spirited Un Giorno di Regno – usually translated as King for a Day – is one of his least performed works. So badly received was the La Scala premiere in 1840 they cancelled the rest of the run. The composer later went to considerable lengths to excuse it as the misbegotten product of a period of personal tragedy. It would be more than 50 years before he wrote Falstaff, his only other comedy.

So why revive it now? Well, as Christopher Alden’s frenetic, over-egged soufflé of a staging for Garsington Opera demonstrates, there’s a decent evening’s entertainment in there just itching to be liberated. And as Chris Hopkins’ buoyant reading of the score proves, Verdi came up with plenty of first rate, second rate music (to misquote Richard Strauss), even if you don’t come out whistling many of the tunes.