THE BLACK ROBE

The embarrassment of riches among Naxos's narrators doesn't benefit this production, sadly. Wilkie Collins's melodramatic romance involves troubled marriages and religious intrigue. Nicholas Boulton's third-person narration also includes interpolated sections (mostly letters), in which the same characters Boulton has portrayed are acted by others. A long, final section of diary excerpts is performed by Gunnar Cauthery. All the performances are polished, especially that of Boulton, who provides well-modulated and varied character voices, including women's. But hearing those characters "own" voices, as opposed to their "letter voices," is disruptive, even occasionally jarring. Introducing different voices perhaps seemed a good idea, mirroring the novel's structure, but was unnecessary at best. Fortunately, it doesn't spoil the whole, which remains a high-quality production of this emotionally fraught novel. W.M. © AudioFile 2025, Portland, Maine [Published: JULY 2025]