Dutch National Opera Presents Donizetti Queens In Concert

On Sunday 16 May at 19:00 hrs CET, Dutch National Opera (DNO) presents a stream of Donizetti Queens in Concert. The concert consists of highlights from Donizetti's three Tudor Queens operas that DNO will bring in the coming seasons: Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda and Roberto Devereux. The stream will remain available for 48 hours.

With this concert, Dutch National Opera introduces the top artists who will return in the coming years. Dutch director Jetske Mijnssen directs and the Italian Bel Canto specialist Enrique Mazzola, chief conductor of Chicago Lyric Opera, is in charge of the musical direction of the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra and the Chorus of DNO. Latvian soprano Marina Rebeka, previously Mathilde in Rossini's Guillaume Tell, takes on the roles of Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda and Elisabetta. American mezzo-soprano J'Nai Bridges portrays the rivals. Tenor Ismael Jordi has been cast for the male lovers, and Roberto Tagliavini gives shape to the unpredictable and cruel Henry VIII, among others. The cast will be completed by three singers from the DNO Studio: mezzo-soprano Maya Gour, bass-baritone Frederik Bergman and baritone Maksym Nazarenko.

For Gaetano Donizetti, the English Tudor dynasty provided a rich source of inspiration. He wrote several operas about the crowned heads who ruled in a period full of religious and political conflicts, and he provided their most intimate feelings with superb musical expression. Rivalry and the price of the crown are central to all the Tudor operas. In Anna Bolena, Anne Boleyn, the tragic second wife of Henry VIII, sees herself being replaced by third wife Jane Seymour. In Maria Stuarda, Queen Elizabeth I, daughter of Anne Boleyn, clashes with Mary Stuart, who, as a Catholic Scottish royal, poses a realistic threat to the crown. In Roberto Devereux we follow Elisabeth I in her final days, as she feels betrayed in politics and love by her favourite Robert Devereux.

The concert presents highlights from these three operas in non-chronological order. The programme opens with Roberto Devereux's overture, in which Donizetti brilliantly incorporated the English national anthem, and builds up to the gripping finale of Anna Bolena, with the queen facing her executioner.