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Beware the Queens in the House of Tudor

Paul Kotapish on July 11, 2016
Elīna Garanča as Sara and Sondra Radvanovsky as Elizabeth I in the Metropolitan Opera’s recent production of Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux | Credit: Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera

Michael Shae recalls the challenges facing Beverly Sills when she took on three Donizetti operas during one intense season at the New York City Opera in the early 1970s and notes that Sondra Radvanovsky is confronting the same challenges this season. In his recent article titled “Living Dangerously With Donizetti” in The New York Time Review of Books, he describes the so-called “Tudor trilogy” as “overwrought, even at times absurd, but ... also the occasion for some of Donizetti’s most powerful music, which is what makes Roberto DevereuxAnna Bolena, and Maria Stuarda worth reviving today.” Whether any soprano is up to tackling all three in one season remains an open question.

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