Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux

Though named after the 2nd Earl of Essex, this opera is as much about Queen Elizabeth I – albeit with no small amount of historical artistic licence. Premiered at Naples’s Teatro San Carlo in October 1837, Roberto Devereux was written in the shadow of intense grief for the composer, who lost both parents, two children and his wife in the period leading up to its commission and writing. For the libretto he turned to regular collaborator Salvatore Cammarano, who was accused of plagiarising Felice Romani’s earlier work Il Conte d’essex.