Stage director Jetske Mijnssen about Donizetti's Roberto Devereux | Dutch National Opera

The loneliness of the throne

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.

Far more than the main character, Elizabeth is in fact the star of the opera, with Donizetti giving a very individual and human musical portrait of the queen. Every shade of feeling in her heart is reflected in the music, from her innermost desire for love to anger, hate, disdain and doubt. This makes Roberto Devereux the most modern of the three Tudor operas.

Performance information

Lyric tragedy in three acts
Sung in Italian

Libretto – Salvadore Cammarano

Musical direction – Enrique Mazzola
Stage direction – Jetske Mijnssen
Set design – Ben Baur
Costume design – Klaus Bruns
Lighting design – Cor van den Brink
Dramaturgy – Luc Joosten

Elisabetta – Barno Ismatullaeva
Duca di Nottingham – Nikolai Zemlianskikh
Sara, duchessa di Nottingham – Angela Brower
Roberto Devereux – Ismael Jordi
Lord Cecil – Thando Mjandana
Sir Gualtiero Raleigh – Mark Kurmanbayev*
Un Cavaliere – Peter Arink
Un famigliare di Nottingham – Sander Heutinck

* Dutch National Opera Studio

Chorus of Dutch National Opera
Chorus master Edward Ananian-Cooper

Netherlands Chamber Orchestra

Coproduction with Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia (Valencia) and Teatro San Carlo (Naples)

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