Mary, Queen of Scots Premiers at the San Diego Opera
Tom Fudge: On Saturday, the San Diego Opera opens its performances of Mary, Queen of Scots. It's an Italian opera, actually called Maria Stuarda , written in the early 19th Century by Donizetti. It reflects a fascination that educated Italians of the time had with British history. Queen Mary had a tough life, spending a good deal of it in prison. She had the poor luck of getting on the bad side of the Protestant Queen, Elizabeth the First. But some of the scenes in the opera never happened in real life. They are a product of the imaginations of the composer and librettist who wrote Maria Stuarda .
Mary, Queen of Scots begins this weekend and runs through Feb. 24. KPBS will be broadcasting the opera on March 2, at 7 p.m.
Guests
- Kate Aldrich , mezzo soprano who performs the role of Queen Elizabeth in Mary, Queen of Scots .
- Dr. Nicolas Reveles, Geisel Director of Education and Outreach at the San Diego Opera. He's also the host of OperaTalk! on UCSD-TV.
- Andrew Sullivan, stage director for Mary, Queen of Scots . He also directed the San Diego production of The Pearl Fishers in 2004, and went on to direct the show in New York City and San Francisco.
