© 2026 The Couch Critic
Status
Released
Release
2018
Runtime
2h 44m
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.
16 Cast Members
Anna Caterina Antonacci
Queen Elizabeth I
Leonardo Capalbo
Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex
Paula Murrihy
Frances, Countess of Essex
Duncan Rock
Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy
Sophie Bevan
Penelope, Lady Rich
Leigh Melrose
Sir Robert Cecil
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