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Donizetti - Maria Stuarda                | Brilliant Classics 93963

Donizetti - Maria Stuarda

New Item

Label: Brilliant Classics

Cat No: 93963

Barcode: 5028421939636

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 2

Genre: Opera

Release Date: 26th October 2009

This product has now been deleted. Information is for reference only.

Contents

Artists

Beverley Sills
Eileen Farrell
Patricia Kern
Stuart Burrows
Christian du Plessis
Louis Quilico
John Alldis Choir
London Philharmonic Orchestra

Conductor

Aldo Ceccato

Works

Donizetti, Gaetano

Maria Stuarda

Artists

Beverley Sills
Eileen Farrell
Patricia Kern
Stuart Burrows
Christian du Plessis
Louis Quilico
John Alldis Choir
London Philharmonic Orchestra

Conductor

Aldo Ceccato

About

Donizetti’s take on the last few days in the life of Mary, Queen of Scots, was premiered in 1834, but under the title of Buondelmonte due to the censor having problems with the subject matter. Executing monarchs made many European governments very jittery in the first part of the 19th century, with the French Revolution still very fresh in the memory of most leaders. In the past 300 years Mary, Queen of Scots, and Charles I in Britain, Carl Gustav in Sweden, and Louis and Marie Antoinette in France had all been executed or murdered.

The libretto of Maria Stuarda is taken from a play by Schiller and adapted by Giuseppe Bardari. The action takes place in the Palace of Westminster and Fotheringay Castle in 1587. Maria (Mary) attempts to plead for a pardon from Elisabetta, her half sister. The two Queens meet, and in the course of the meeting, Maria is provoked to the extent that she can no longer contain her anger, and lashes out at Elisabetta. Her fate is sealed, and she prepares for death calmly, and prays for her friends before going to the scaffold. The original, uncensored version was premiered with Maria Malibran in the title role in 1835. Strangely, the British premiere was given in 1966 in St Pancras Town Hall, and the US premiere took place two years earlier in New York.

Stuart Burrows … steals the vocal honours. Impassioned and youthful in sound, he produces a lovely lyrical legato in true Italian style but with intelligence and impeccable taste: this is his first Italian opera recording … Beverly Sills, as Mary Stuart, is in a class of her own. It is her technical prowess as a singer which stays in the mind rather than her characterisation of the unhappy queen.’ - Gramophone

Recorded in 1971.

Cast:
- Beverly Sills: Maria Stuarda
- Eileen Farrell: Elisabetta
- Patricia Kern: Anna Kennedy
- Stuart Burrows: Roberto, Earl of Leicester
- Christian du Plessis: Lord Gugliemo Cecil
- Louis Quilico: Giorgio Talbot

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