Opera Cheat Sheet: Roberto Devereux

Gaetano Donizetti seems to have had a thing for English Tudor history!  He wrote no less than four operas about historical figures from the time of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.The climactic opera of the “Tudor Queen” trilogy, Roberto Devereux which debuted in Naples in 1837, tells the story of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, an influential member of the court of Elizabeth I (and her supposed lover!), and how her feelings for him impacted her... Read More