Performance information

Performance information

Maria Stuarda

Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848)

Duration

2 hours and 55 minutes, including one interval

The performance is sung in Italian.

There are English and Dutch surtitles.

Tragic opera in two acts

 

Makers

Libretto

Giuseppe Bardari

Musical direction

Enrique Mazzola

Stage direction

Jetske Mijnssen

Set design

Ben Baur

Costume design

Klaus Bruns

Lighting design

Cor van den Brink

Choreography

Lillian Stillwell

Dramaturgy

Luc Joosten

 

Cast

Maria Stuarda

Kristina Mkhitaryan

Elisabetta

Aigul Akhmetshina

Leicester

Ismael Jordi

Anna Kennedy

Sílvia Sequeira*

Giorgio Talbot

Aleksei Kulagin

Lord Guglielmo Cecil

Simon Mechlinski

* Dutch National Opera Studio

Netherlands Chamber Orchestra

Chorus of Dutch National Opera

Chorus master

Edward Ananian-Cooper

Co-production with

Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia (Valencia) & Teatro di San Carlo (Napels)

 

Production team

Assistant conductor

Elda Laro

Assistant directors

Jean-François Kessler

Noah van Renswoude

Assistant chorus master

Ad Broeksteeg

Assistant set design

Felicia Riegel

Repetiteur

Peter Lockwood

Alessandro Amoretti

Daniel Ruiz de Cenzano Caballero

Repetiteur (intern)

Raphael Amoretti

Language coach soloists

Alessandro Amoretti

Language coach chorus

Hilde Cortese

Stage management

Merel Francissen

Emma Eberlijn

Pieter Heebink

Sanne van de Vooren

Master carpenter

Jeroen Jaspers

Lighting manager

Peter van der Sluis

Props master

Niko Groot

Sound engineer

Florian Jankowski

First make-up artist

Pim van der Wielen

Costume supervisor

Lars Willhausen

First dresser

Sandra Bloos

Children supervisor

Manon Wittebol

Artistic planner

Vere van Opstal

Dramaturgy

Naomi Teekens

Surtitle director

Eveline Karssen

Surtitle operator

Irina Trajkovska

Production manager

Nicky Cammaert

Set supervisor

Sieger Kotterer

Orchestra representative

Jurrien Loman

 

Chorus of Dutch National Opera

Sopranos

Esther Adelaar

Lisette Bolle

Bernadette Bouthoorn

Jeanneke van Buul

Caroline Cartens

Kitty de Geus

Melanie Greve

Oleksandra Lenyshyn

Simone van Lieshout

Tomoko Makuuchi

Sara Moreira Marques

Elizabeth Poz

Janine Scheepers

Altos

Irmgard von Asmuth

Elsa Barthas

Anneleen Bijnen

Daniëlla Buijck

Rut Codina Palacio

Johanna Dur

Yvonne Kok

Fang Fang Kong

Maria Kowan

Myra Kroese

Itzel Medecigo

Sophia Patsi

Marieke Reuten

Klarijn Verkaart

Tenors

Thomas de Bruijn

Wim-Jan van Deuveren

Frank Engel

Milan Faas

Ruud Fiselier

Livio Gabrielli

Robert Kops

Roy Mahendratha

Tigran Matinyan

Richard Prada

Mirco Schmidt

François Soons

Julien Traniello

Rudi de Vries

Basses

Ronald Aijtink

Peter Arink

Jorne van Bergeijk

Jeroen van Glabbeek

Julian Hartman

Agris Hartmanis

Sander Heutinck

Dominic Kraemer

Richard Meijer

Matthijs Mesdag

Christiaan Peters

Jaap Sletterink

René Steur

Harry Teeuwen

Rob Wanders

 

Dancers

Demi Wals (dance captain)

Alina Fejzo

Lili Kok

Evaldo Melo

Isabelle Nelson

Renzo Popolizio

Laia Vancells Pi

Luigi Vilotta

 

Child extra’s

Billy Maan

Yara Swaab

 

Netherlands Chamber Orchestra

First violin

Ionel Manciu

Tijmen Huisingh

Philip Dingenen

Melissa Ussery

Sasha Raikhlina

Beverley Lunt

Vanessa Damanet

Anna Sophie Torn

Zen Hu-Gothoni

Kilian van Rooij

Second violin

Alessandro Ruisi

Laura Oomens

Paulien Holthuis

Siobhán Doyle

Stephanie van Duijn

Olga Caceanova

Catharina Ungvari

Maria Gilicel

Viola

Luba Tunnicliffe

Berdien Vrijland

Minna Svedberg

Elias Zaabi Saez

Frank Goossens

José Moura Nunes

Cello

Sietse-Jan Weijenberg

Jan Bastiaan Neven

Giorgos Kotsiolis

Anastasia Feruleva

Charles Watt

Double bass

Annette Zahn

Joaquin Clemente Riera

Larissa Klipp

Flute

Leon Berendse

Liset Pennings

Ellen Vergunst

Oboe

Juan Esteban Mendoza Bisogni

Maria Dolores Martínez García

Clarinet

Leon Bosch

Peter Cranen

Bassoon

Susan Brinkhof

Dymphna van Dooremaal

Horn

Fokke van Heel

Márton Kóródi

Christiaan Beumer

Edward Peeters

Trumpet

Gertjan Loot

Sven Berkelmans

Trombone

Bram Peeters

Rafael De Jesus Afonso

Jelle Koertshuis

Timpani

Theun van Nieuwburg

Percussion

Matthijs van Driel

Lennard Nijs

Harp

Sandrine Chatron

Jaike Bakker

The story

Follow the link below to read the story of Maria Stuarda.

Maria Stuarda: the story

When the French King asks for the hand in marriage of Elisabetta, the protestant Queen of England, she feels torn between her duty to her people and her love for the Earl of Leicester. But this is not Elisabetta’s only dilemma; for years, she has been holding her cousin prisoner: the Scottish Catholic Maria Stuarda. Elisabetta’s advisers urge her to have Maria Stuarda executed as the Scottish Queen is a claimant to the throne of England. Despite the threat she poses, Elisabetta remains undecided.

As the tensions between the two queens continue to rise further, Maria finds an ally in none other than the Earl of Leicester. Drawing from his loyalty to Elisabetta and his love for the Queen of Scotland, he attempts to mediate between the two, but his efforts only fuel Elisabetta’s suspicions and jealousy.

The two queens become embroiled in a religious, political, and personal struggle, which culminates in a fierce confrontation between the two rivals. When Maria insults Elisabetta in the heat of the moment with the words “figlia impura di Bolena… vil bastarda!” (impure daughter of Boleyn… vile bastard!), she seals her fate. Efforts by her allies to save her are to no avail and Maria is condemned to death and led to the scaffold.

She had claims to three thrones, but lost all her power

Follow the link below to read more about the historical Mary Stuart.

She had claims to three thrones, but lost all her power

She was only six days old when her father, James V of Scotland, died and she inherited the Scottish throne. Six years later, her mother sent the young queen to France, where she received a strict Catholic upbringing and rigorous preparation for her future duties. She was destined to marry the French crown prince, the future Francis II, which she did in 1558 when she was aged just sixteen. As it happened, aptly enough, the reigning Queen of England, Mary Tudor, daughter of Henry VIII from his first marriage to Catherine of Aragon died that same year. She was succeeded by Elizabeth I, the so-called bastard daughter of Henry VIII from his second marriage to Anne Boleyn. Elizabeth would eventually become Mary Stuart’s greatest rival.

As a great-granddaughter of Henry VII, Mary Stuart, urged on by her advisors, believed she had a claim to the English throne. However, this claim was purely a political statement and was not backed by military action by the French and Scottish armies. It was limited to the symbolic act of the inclusion of the English crown in Mary Stuart’s coat of arms alongside those of France and Scotland. Mary also styled herself Regina Franciae, Scotiae, Anglicae et Hiberniae in public and in all official documents. These provocations made her a permanent threat to Elizabeth’s royal power.

Maria en deuil blanc, François Clouet, ca. 1560
Maria en deuil blanc, François Clouet, ca. 1560

One year after Mary Stuart’s marriage to the crown prince, King Henry II of France was fatally injured in a tournament and his son Francis II succeeded him as the new monarch. Mary Stuart was now Queen of France and Scotland and consequently at the peak of her power although still only an adolescent. But she lost power even faster than she had gained it. Her mother Mary of Guise, who had ruled Scotland as her regent in her absence, died one year later. That same year saw the demise of her spouse, the weak child-king Francis II of France, whereby Mary lost the French throne and was forced to return to Scotland.

In the turbulent years that followed, Mary Stuart’s subsequent two marriages played a key role in her political downfall. Mary Stuart’s actions were carefully monitored by the Elizabethan court, concerned that she might contract a marriage that would turn Scotland into a beachhead for a strong Catholic nation — such as Spain, whose king Philip II was proposing his son Don Carlos as a serious candidate. Elizabeth did everything within her powers to prevent such a marriage, at one point even putting forward her own beloved Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. Eventually, in 1565, Mary Stuart married Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, another great-grandchild of Henry VII. However, her happiness did not last long. At first, she showered honours on Darnley and styled him Rex Scotiae, but his “heart of wax”, as Mary Stuart later called it, became consumed by vain pride and a lust for power. He demanded the crown and wanted to rule Scotland alongside Mary.

Jetske Mijnssen & Kristina Mkhitaryan tijdens een repetitie
Jetske Mijnssen & Kristina Mkhitaryan (Maria Stuarda) | Photo: Ben van Duin

Mary Stuart, who was pregnant by this point, responded by cutting her husband off from all affairs of state and entrusting her political policy to David Rizzio, her secretary from Piedmont. She also appointed the ‘iron’ soldier Lord Bothwell as commander of her troops. The situation escalated and got completely out of hand when a jealous Darnley plotted with Scottish nobility to murder David Rizzio in a brutal attack. Mary Stuart is suspected of retaliating by plotting the murder of her own husband, conspiring together with Bothwell, with whom she had started a passionate relationship by this time. The customary period of mourning had not even ended when Mary Stuart married for the third time, her new husband being no other than Bothwell, Darnley’s alleged murderer. This turned the people of Scotland against their queen, whereupon Mary Stuart appealed to the bond of friendship that Elizabeth I had previously vowed in writing: Mary asked her for protection, aid and political asylum. Although she had not received a concrete commitment from Elizabeth, on 26 May 1568 Mary Stuart crossed the border and set foot on English soil. She was not yet twenty-six, but she had already lost all her true political power.

Based on Alex Mallems’ De clash der koninginnen

Translation: Clare Wilkinson

From little whore to Virgin Queen

Follow the link below to read more about the historical Elizabeth I.

From little whore to Virgin Queen

“Can I put to death the bird that, to escape the pursuit of the hawk, has fled to my feet for protection? Honour and conscience forbid!,” wrote the historical Queen Elizabeth I to her advisors. These words unmistakably encapsulate the crisis of conscience she faced. An examination of the historical facts reveals the complicated position in which Elizabeth found herself and suggests that the dilemma of whether to grant mercy or order Mary’s execution may have reminded Elizabeth of her father’s blood-soaked legacy.

The taint of the bastard clung to Elizabeth from birth, as servants called her “the little whore, daughter of the great whore”. Her father Henry VIII had his first marriage to the Catholic Catherine of Aragon annulled because she was only able to give him a daughter. In 1533 he married again, wedding an already pregnant Anne Boleyn, who had been lady-in-waiting to Catherine of Aragon. Elizabeth was born a few months later. Neither the divorce nor the new marriage was recognised by the Catholic Church. The monarch soon responded in kind: in 1534, he got Parliament to pass the Act of Supremacy, establishing a separate state Church of England with the King as its head and breaking all relations with the papacy. Henry VIII later had Anne Boleyn executed in 1536, when Elizabeth was not yet three years old. Just one year later, the Catholic Mary Tudor, Henry’s daughter from his first marriage, was rehabilitated and brought back to court. Meanwhile, the Protestant Elizabeth was downgraded from Lady Princess to Lady Elizabeth.

Regenboogportret van Elisabeth I, Isaac Oliver, ca. 1600
Elizabeth I, Isaac Oliver, ca. 1600

Bitter wars of religion

After the death of her father, bitter wars of religion continued to dominate the sixteenth century. During the reign of the boy-king Edward VI, Henry VIII’s only legitimate son who was born out of his marriage to his third wife Jane Seymour, Protestantism was consolidated as the state religion. However, this was followed by a fierce Catholic reaction during the reign of Mary Tudor, with implications for the Protestant Elizabeth. The greatest ambition of the fervently Catholic Mary was to restore Catholicism in England. She married Philip II of Spain and introduced a cruel inquisition of Protestants – after the continental model. The numerous executions, certainly by England’s standards at the time, earned her the moniker ‘Bloody Mary’. At first, efforts were made to convert Elizabeth to Catholicism. There were even plans to marry her off to a suitable (i.e. Catholic) candidate; the proposition of a marriage to the Infante of Spain, the young boy Don Carlos, is the most illustrious example. Later, when there was the threat of a rebellion in England against Mary I and her husband Philip II, Elizabeth was wrongly accused of involvement in the plot, whereafter she was consigned to the Tower of London for over two months – living in constant fear of death on the scaffold.

Aigul Akhmetshina (Elisabetta) & Ismael Jordi (Leicester)
Aigul Akhmetshina (Elisabetta) & Ismael Jordi (Leicester) | Photo: Ben van Duin

Change of Fate

No less a person than Philip II of Spain himself would eventually play a crucial role in Elizabeth’s fate. His marriage to Mary I remained childless, putting Elizabeth first in line to the English throne. Mary Stuart was second in line, and at that point both Queen of Scotland and a claimant to the French crown. But political considerations clearly outweighed religious interests for Philip II, as rather than enabling the union of the English, Scottish and French crowns under the Catholic Mary Stuart, he preferred to back the Protestant Elizabeth as his wife’s successor. This would ensure that the kingdom of England would not unite with France. Under pressure from Philip II and Spain, Elizabeth’s right of succession to the English throne was even officially restored and confirmed: making that the very pinnacle of Mary Stuart’s power which led indirectly to the salvation for her subsequent rival Elizabeth.

Based on Alex Mallems’ De clash der koninginnen

Translation: Clare Wilkinson

Two queens, one crown

Follow the link below to read more about the conflict between Mary Stuart and Elizabeth I.

Two queens, one crown

The two most legendary queens of European history each achieved eternal fame through the actions of the other. After all, Mary Stuart is largely remembered for the way she met her end, executed on the orders of Elizabeth I, who – driven by an instinct for survival – listened to her head rather than her heart.

Chastened by her childhood experiences, Elizabeth was well prepared for the task she faced. She prioritised the national interest and put an end to the Catholicising policies of her predecessor, Mary I. However, the Catholic Mary Stuart was still first in line to the throne after the ‘Virgin Queen’, who had deliberately chosen not to marry. Moreover, religious fanaticism dominated European politics during this period. The pope praised the massacre of six thousand Huguenots on St. Bartholomew’s Day as a worthy deed and elevated the assassinations into a hallowed act, the Spanish regime of Philip II and his ambassador Mendoza had made “killing the queen” a political priority, and various Catholic conspiracies targeting Elizabeth, in which Mary Stuart was implicated, were openly supported by the Pope and Spain.

Kristina Mkhitaryan (Maria Stuarda) & Aigul Akhmetshina (Elisabetta)
Kristina Mkhitaryan (Maria Stuarda) & Aigul Akhmetshina (Elisabetta) | Foto: Ben van Duin

After the English Parliament had exerted considerable pressure, the decision was taken to put Mary Stuart on trial. Initially her royal immunity seemed to pose an obstacle to the plans, but the English peers eventually found a way round. They undertook not only to ensure the death of anyone who conspired against Elizabeth but also to hold any claimant for whose cause the conspirators were acting personally responsible for the conspirators’ actions. Parliament gave these decisions legal force in the Act for the Security of the Queen’s Royal Person, with the sentence to be pronounced by twenty-four judges appointed by the Crown and the threat of the axe as a deterrence. The implication of the Security Act was clear: in future, Mary Stuart’s royal status would not save her from prosecution. On the contrary, if an attack on Elizabeth were to succeed, rather than ascending to the throne, Mary Stuart would end up on the scaffold.

To turn the innocent Scottish queen into a guilty party, the English spymaster Walsingham exploited a conspiracy involving a few naive provincial Catholic nobles. For as long as it took him to collect the damning evidence, he offered them the opportunity to correspond with Mary Stuart. Parliament needed three elements of proof to make the killing of Mary Stuart ‘legal’. Firstly, the conspirators needed to have demonstrably plotted an attack on Elizabeth. Secondly, Mary Stuart needed to have been explicitly aware of the plan. And finally, she needed to have approved the planned assassination in writing. Eventually, Walsingham was able to provide irrefutable proof of each of these three points. Mary Stuart was transferred to Fotheringhay Castle, where she appeared before a court of English noblemen. As the crowned Queen of Scotland, she appealed to her right as a sovereign to have to answer only to God, but her pleas were in vain. On 25 October 1586, she became the first anointed queen to be sentenced to death.

Kristina Mkhitaryan (Maria Stuarda) & dansers
Kristina Mkhitaryan (Maria Stuarda) & dancers | Photo: Ben van Duin

After Mary Stuart’s execution on 8 February 1587, over three months after her sentence, Elizabeth I of England continued consolidating her own power. She died a natural death in 1603, having ruled England for forty-five years. Mary Stuart’s son James VI of Scotland succeeded Elizabeth as James I of England, bringing about a union of the crowns and fulfilling his mother’s old dream. He had his mother’s body reburied in the royal crypt in Westminster, where her carved tomb effigy was placed close to that of Elizabeth. In this way, the two queens, who never truly met in real life, were symbolically united in death.

Based on Alex Mallems’ De clash der koninginnen

Translation: Clare Wilkinson

Trailer Maria Stuarda

Maria Stuarda en Elisabetta

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