Video streamed event and on demand: Maria StuardaNew production

Two Queens. One Catholic and Scottish, one Protestant and English. One in prison at the other’s behest. A man between them balancing loyalty and love. A cry of ‘Vile bastard’ is the impassioned insult that leads one to the scaffold.

The insult was so potent that the first performance of Donizetti’s historical tragedy was cancelled at the last minute in Naples through royal intervention. A toned-down revision went awry at La Scala the following year, when the great Maria Malibran chose to sing the original words. Donizetti, a crafter of infinitely beautiful melodies, based his opera on Friedrich Schiller's drama of the same title focusing on the last days of the life of the tragic Queen of Scots. Hungarian State Opera’s first, this production is staged by Máté Szabó and streamed live from Budapest.