Donizetti: Roberto Devereux (2-DVD) – Beverly Sills

Composer: Gaetano Donizetti
Artists: Beverly Sills, John Alexander, Susanne Marsee, Richard Fredricks, John Lankston, David Rae Smith, Filene Center Orchestra & Wolf Trap Company Chorus
Conductor: Julius Rudel
Director: Tito Capobianco
Format: NTSC
Language: Italian
Subtitles: English
Region: All Regions
Number of Discs: 2
Studio: Video Artists International
DVD Release Date: August 26, 2008
Run Time: 132 minutes

Roberto Devereux, the last and probably the greatest opera Gaetano Donizetti composed for the San Carlo Opera House in Naples, is based on the intense, tangled relationship between Queen Elizabeth I and the Earl of Essex, who was beheaded for treason in 1601. The role of the queen is one of the strongest in the bel canto soprano repertoire.

In 1975, “In Performance at Wolf Trap” presented Beverly Sills in perhaps her most acclaimed portrayal, that of Queen Elizabeth I. When Sills first sang the role at the New York City Opera in 1970, Winthrop Sargeant wrote in the New Yorker, “She was Elizabeth, from the extreme pallor of her makeup to the royal sweep of her train. It was a characterization that I shall never forget. The combination of skills she brought to her role made this a historic moment.” Daniel Webster wrote in the Philadelphia Inquirer, “Sills sang the towering role with such authority and portrayed Queen Elizabeth with such fervor that the opera, unstaged [in New York] for more than 125 years, now is one of the theatrical events of the year.” All this acclaim and admiration culminated in Sills being featured on the cover of Time magazine in her Elizabeth I costume and makeup. The headline: “America's Queen of Opera.”

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