This live recording of a performance of Donizetti’s opera Maria Stuarda that took place in Milan in 1971 features one of the outstanding divas in recent times, Montserrat Caballé, alongside other soloists including Shirley Verett, and Ottavio Garaventa. The CD release incorporates a 56-page booklet with historic photos, a complete Italian libretto and new original English translation, and an essay on the performance by Bill Parker.

Gaetano Donizetti wrote three operas based on the lives of English Queens, Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda, and Roberto Devereux. None of them stick very close to history. Each is treated in such a way as to heighten, exaggerate, or simply invent scenes and situations that might have taken place during the lives of these three fascinating monarchs. Maria Stuarda’s dramatic punch, particularly when the two starring women are front and centre, is unique. Rivalry is always the stuff of great drama, but rivalry between monarchs is, by de nition, on an entirely different and much higher level.