Maria Stuarda: Opera by Donizetti

Description

DVD of Donizetti’s (often listed as two act) three act tragic opera Mari Stuarda based on the 1800 play Maria Stuart. The opera originally premiered in 1835 at La Scala in Milan. This production is from 2002. Dolby Digital 5.1.

The opera is one of a number of operas by Donizetti which deal with the Tudor period in English history, including Anna Bolena (named for Henry VIII’s second wife, Anne Boleyn), Roberto Devereux (named for a putative lover of Queen Elizabeth I of England) and Il castello di Kenilworth. The lead female characters of the operas Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda, and Roberto Devereux are often referred to as the “Three Donizetti Queens”. The story is loosely based on the lives of Mary, Queen of Scots (Mary Stuart) and her cousin Queen Elizabeth I. Schiller had invented the confrontation of the two Queens, who in fact never met.

Starring Carmela Remigio as Mari stuart, with Sonia Ganassi as Elisabetta and Joseph Calleja as Leicester