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Roberto Devereux

Thu 18 Apr - Mon 6 May
18 Apr
-
6 May

The story of the love between Queen Elizabeth I and Robert Devereux, the Earl of Essex, concludes the Tudor Trilogy, as it is known, by the Italian belcanto composer Gaetano Donizetti.

In Roberto Devereux (1837), Donizetti shows Elizabeth I as an older woman, two years before her death. The tough world of politics at her court and in her empire has turned her into a stern, bitter and lonely woman. She has rarely been fortunate enough to experience happiness in love. Now she has reached the end of her life, she has become more aware of that absence, and her desire for love has only grown. But Elizabeth soon realises she is not the only one to have fallen for Devereux.