

Performed at Madrid's historic Teatro Real in 2018, Ivor Bolton conducts Benjamin Britten's opera based on Lytton Strachey's 1928 Elizabeth and Essex: A Tragic History. In her repeated clashes with the Earl of Essex-a longtime favorite of the queen who was ultimately put to death for treason-Elizabeth I is depicted as flawed and vain, human and sympathetic.
David Soar
Sir Walter Raleigh

Benedict Nelson
Henry Cuffe

Elena Copons
A Lady-in-Waiting

James Creswell
A Blind Ballad-Singer

Sam Furness
The Spirit of the Masque

Àlex Sanmartí
The City Crier

Scott Wilde
The Recorder of Norwhich

Itxaro Mentxaka
A Housewife

Gerardo Lopez
The Master of Ceremonies

Dan Thomas
Vihuela