LA MONNAIE / DE MUNT

Kings, queens, and their favourites… Or how, even in pandemic times, our artists refuse to give up. Now that the grandiose Donizetti project Bastarda (about the life of Elizabeth I) has been postponed, the team has come up with a new, but related project, made available via streaming. Through the eyes of one privileged spectator – a young girl that has been anticipating these performances for quite some time – you will be served up the highlights of Rossini’s Elisabetta, regina d’Inghilterra and Donizetti’s La favorita over two evenings. A further examination of the conflict between love and power in the lives of illustrative figures such as Elizabeth I, by conductor Francesco Lanzillotta, director Olivier Fredj and a star-studded cast of bel canto singers.

The Queen and her Favourite

In Elisabetta, regina d’Inghilterra (1815), Rossini’s first opera for the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, we meet Elizabeth Tudor again as, following a military victory in Scotland, she learns of the secret marriage of her protégé Leicester. After scenes of betrayal and sacrifice, Elizabeth finally forgives her favourite and seeks to forget that, as well as being a queen, she is also a woman: “Fuggi amor da questo seno / non turbar più il viver mio” (“May love disappear from my heart and no longer torment my life”).

Tickets Streaming

Downloads

• Biographies and overview of selected musical numbers (331.7 kB)