Maria Stuarda

Elizabeth Tudor is Queen of England. Her embittered rival is the Scots Queen, Mary Stuart, who, rejected by her people and living in captivity ever since, also raises a claim to the English throne. The Earl of Leicester, Elizabeth's favourite, is madly in love with Mary and therefore tries to mediate between the adversaries. When the two queens finally meet, the situation escalates: Instead of begging for mercy, Mary insults her royal cousin, thus provoking the final break with her. After long deliberation and in rage at Leicester's secret intrigues, Elizabeth finally sign's Mary's death warrant.

Although it had actually been written in 1834 as a commissioned work for the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, Gaetano Donizetti's opera »Maria Stuarda« was not to be given its first performance until 30 December 1835 at La Scala, Milan. Difficulties with the Neapolitan censors had meant that Donizetti's adaptation of Friedrich Schiller's famous drama of ideas had been performed there initially in a completely distorted form – and consequently with only limited success – under the title »Buondelmonte«. But even the first performance in Milan, which had returned to the essentially more theatrically effective original libretto by Giuseppe Bardari, did not enjoy any appreciable success because of the indisposition of the two leading female singers, which is why the work subsequently disappeared into obscurity for many years. It was not until the 20th century that the piece was able gradually to gain a firm place in the repertoire of international opera houses through the interpretations of a number of outstanding female soloists. After his completely successful staging of Vincenzo Bellini's »La sonnambula«, director Michael Sturminger is now also producing Donizetti's psychological depiction in music of two closely interlinked female figures for Munich audiences.

Programmheft MARIA STUARDA Leseprobe