# Operas involving the Queen of England



## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

So we have Donizetti's three queen operas, Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda, and Roberto Devereux. But then there is a 4th Donizetti queen opera: Elisabetta al castello di Kenilworth.

Then we have the Saint-Saëns opera Henry VIII where he gets rid of his first wife so he can marry Anna Bolena. And we have the Rossini queen opera, Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra, where Roberto marries the daughter of Maria Stuarda, again ticking off the queen.

All of these are interrelated historically (and modified with fictitious parts). Are there any other operas by any composers that would historically interrelate to these?


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

From the back off my head I know this one, it's about a King Enrico II / his wife / his lover

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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Pugg said:


> From the back off my head I know this one, it's about a King Enrico II / his wife / his lover
> 
> ​


For some reason your image posted is not showing up for me, but if you are referring to Donizetti's Rosmonda d'Inghilterra, then you will be shopping a CD set. I see the full opera with Renee on CD, but this highlights set has a nice portrait of her so I could not help posting it instead:









However, this one is 12th century which puts it pretty far back from the operas I listed (~16th century), so not sure how interrelated it is with them.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

There's always Edward German's operetta *Merrie England*, which, interweaves real people from history into the fictitious narrative; Sir Walter Raleigh, the Earl of Essex, and Queen Elizabeth herself, a contralto who sings _O peaceful England_.


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## Cavaradossi (Aug 2, 2012)

Benjamin Britten's _Gloriana_ also deals with Elizabeth and Essex.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Cavaradossi said:


> Benjamin Britten's _Gloriana_ also deals with Elizabeth and Essex.


How could I forget? I love the opera. Its comparative failure at its premiere had more to do with extra-musical reasons than anything to do with the quality of the music.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Ambroise Thomas' _Le songe d'une nuit d'été_ which, despite it's title, is not based on Shakespeare but features Elizabeth I, Shakespeare and Falstaff as characters!!


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## Cavaradossi (Aug 2, 2012)

Florestan said:


> Are there any other operas by any composers that would historically interrelate to these?


I think a pretty good case can be made for including Verdi's _Don Carlo _on this list. After all, Phillip II of Spain was married to Queen Elizabeth's predecessor, Mary I. In fact after Mary I died, at the time that Phillip II swooped in to marry Elizabeth of Valois (the act that instigated all of Don Carlo's operatic woes) he also had a proposal pending with Elizabeth I. (Not to mention the armada he later launched against her.)


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## Reichstag aus LICHT (Oct 25, 2010)

Cavaradossi said:


> Benjamin Britten's _Gloriana_ also deals with Elizabeth and Essex.


_Gloriana_, the opera Britten's homophobic rivals renamed "The Twilight of the Sods".


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Reichstag aus LICHT said:


> _Gloriana_, the opera Britten's homophobic rivals renamed "The Twilight of the Sods".


I think Britten had the last laugh. _Gloriana_ was eventually recognised as a masterpiece, whilst many of his operas are now performed all over the world. He could well be considered the most successful post World War II opera composer.


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## mountmccabe (May 1, 2013)

_Le duc de Guise_ (1837) by George Onslow is about the assassination of Mary Stuart's cousin Henry I, Duke of Guise. He was killed less than two years after Mary Stuart was.

Henry I was Mary's mother's brother's son. He was assassinated by the bodyguards of Henry III, king of France, and brother of Mary's husband, Francis II.

And if you allow the above as related, you may also consider Giacomo Meyerbeer's _Les Huguenots_ (1836), loosely based on St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of 1572. This took place while Francis II and Henry III's brother, Charles IX was king, after their sister Margaret married the Protestant Henry III of Navarre. In 1589 after the three brothers had all died, he became King of France (founding the House of Bourbon) with Margaret as his Queen.

I don't know of a recording of the Onslow opera, but there are audio and video recordings of the Meyerbeer.


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## Jeffrey Smith (Jan 2, 2016)

Not quite an opera....
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Masque_at_Kenilworth

Branching out, but keeping with Sullivan, his opera Ivanhoe includes. Richard I Lionheart among the singing roles.

And if Valois are fair game, then Rigoletto needs to come in, since the original of the Duke of Mantua was Henri III.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

If we are going to branch out to _any_ Queen of England, then we have to include I Puritani with Henrietta Maria wife of Charles I.

N.


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## mountmccabe (May 1, 2013)

_Taverner_ (1972) by Peter Maxwell Davies based on the life of the English composer and includes a king that is Henry VIII, though he is not named as such. There is a recording with Oliver Knussen conducting.

Victor Hugo wrote a play _Marie Tudor_ about Mary I and Fabiano Fabiani (a fictional character). It has been adapted into at least three operas, but only two of them retain Mary I as a character: _Maria, regina d'Inghilterra_ by Giovanni Pacini (1843) and _Maria Tudor_ by Antônio Carlos Gomes (1879). Both have been recorded at least once.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

*All credits to mountmccabe*

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*Pacini: Maria regina d'Inghilterra*

Bruce Ford, Nelly Miricioiu, Jose Fardiha, Mary Plazas, Alastair Miles, Susan Bickley, Benjamin Bland

Philharmonia Orchestra, Geoffrey Mitchell Choir, David Parry.

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/w/73133/Giovanni-Pacini-Maria-regina-d'Inghilterra


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## waldvogel (Jul 10, 2011)

In the realm of semi-fictitious queens, Guinevere (in her French guise of Genièvre) is one of the characters in Chausson's _Le Roi Arthus._


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

Auber's Leicester, ou Le château de Kenilworth (1823). Like Donizetti's Elisabetta al castello di Kenilworth, it's based on Scott.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

SimonTemplar said:


> Auber's Leicester, ou Le château de Kenilworth (1823). Like Donizetti's Elisabetta al castello di Kenilworth, it's based on Scott.


Is it recorded as fr as you know?


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

Pugg said:


> Is it recorded as fr as you know?


No, it's French. Like a lot of French operas, it probably hasn't been performed since WWI, let alone recorded. Letellier's book on Auber suggests it's likeable but derivative.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Becca said:


> Ambroise Thomas' _Le songe d'une nuit d'été_ which, despite it's title, is not based on Shakespeare but features Elizabeth I, Shakespeare and Falstaff as characters!!


I see there is a DVD available:


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

Florestan said:


> I see there is a DVD available:


It's quite a charming opera.

Here are two of Elizabeth's arias:










Here's the tenor aria (Shakespeare) from the work:





And the complete opera:


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