- Maria Stuarda
Music by Gaetano Donizetti, libretto by Giuseppe Bardari
Cast includes:
Elizabeth I of England
Mary Stuart
Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester
Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury
Cecil, Lord Burleigh
Hanna Kennedy
Synopsis
Act I: The French ambassador is at Westminster negotiating a marriage proposal from the King of France with Queen Elizabeth, a proposal she is considering although she's secretly in love with Leicester who is currently not at court. Elizabeth has had her cousin Mary Stuart imprisoned in Fotheringay Castle. Talbot, who is in charge of Mary, tries to intercede with Elizabeth on her behalf. The Queen is torn between sympathy for Mary and fear that she is plotting against her. Leicester arrives and she gives him a ring to take to the French Ambassador as a token of her acceptance of the offer of marriage, but is incensed when Leicester seems unmoved by the commission. Privately Talbot gives Leicester a portrait of Mary and a letter from her. Leicester resolves to free the woman he loves. He gives Elizabeth the letter, which is a plea for a meeting with her, and he urges her to consent, pointing out that she can use a hunting party in the vicinity of Fotheringay as a pretext. His enthusiasm for her rival's cause reminds Elizabethof Mary's attempts on the English throne and when Leicester describes Mary's charms, the Queen realises where his loyalties lay.
Act II: Mary walks in the grounds of Fotheringay, remembering the happy days of her youth in France. She hears the approaching royal hunt and regrets having asked Elizabeth for a meeting, but, supported by Leicester, she agrees to stay and face her. Elizabeth also views the occasion with mixed feelings, on the one hand rejecting Cecil's urgings that she executes Mary and on the other enraged by Leicester's arguing her rival's case. Mary humbles herself to ask for clemency. But Elizabeth's references to Mary's murdered husband and aspersions on her honour provoke Mary into taunting Elizabeth with being a bastard. Furious, Elizabeth advises her to expect her death sentence, but Mary exults in her temporary triumph.
Act III: Back at Westminster Elizabeth hesitates to sign the death warrant, despite the urgings of Cecil that her safety and that of the realm depend on Mary's death. Only Leicester's arrival provokes her into signing.
At Fotheringham Mary is still exultant over her humiliation of Elizabeth, though fearing for Leicester. Cecil brings the death warrant. She refuses his offer of a priest, but admits to Talbot that she is oppressed by the recollection of her sins. She confesses to being party to the murder of her husband, Darnley, and also seems to admit complicity in the Babington plot.
Next to the execution chamber Mary's friends lament her fate, and she, facing death calmly, tries to comfort them and give them strength. As the cannon sounds the signal for her execution, Cecil asks for her last requests. She forgives Elizabeth and prays for a blessing on her and the kingdom. She tries to calm Leicester and hopes that her innocent blood will placate the wrath of Heaven. She goes resolutely to her death as her friends grieve over her fate.
=====
the Opera is after the play Maria Stuart by Fridrich von Schiller.
xw