Donizetti: Roberto Devereux – starring Sondra Radvanovsky

David McVicar’s atmospheric Met premiere production frames the dramatic and heartrending love story of Queen Elizabeth I and the Earl of Essex as a play within a play unfolding before the members of the royal court. Sondra Radvanovsky’s portrayal of the aging monarch is a tour de force, laying bare the conflict between her public duties as ruler of England and her private feeling as a woman. Tenor Matthew Polenzani is the Earl of Essex, Roberto Devereux, the object of her affections who is torn between two women. Mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča as Sara and baritone Mariusz Kwiecień as her husband, the Duke of Nottingham, complete the quartet of principals. Maurizio Benini conducts. (© The Metropolitan Opera)