De Nationale Opera - Roberto Devereux

The loneliness of an old queen

In Roberto Devereux (1837), Donizetti shows Queen Elizabeth I as an older woman, two years before she dies. The harsh political world at court and in her empire has made her a strict, bitter and lonely woman. Rarely has she known the happiness of love. Now that she has come to the end of her life and that realization is dawning on her, her longing only becomes greater. But Elizabeth soon notices that she is not the only one who has lost her heart to Devereux.