English National Opera will stage a one-off concert of Benjamin Britten’s Gloriana, originally written to celebrate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, in celebration of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee on Thursday 8 December.
Concerning the last Tudor monarch Elizabeth I, the opera depicts a Queen at her strongest, yet perhaps at her most human as her affections for favoured courtier Robert Devereaux, the Earl of Essex, are tested by a series of plots.
This is the first time the company has performed this piece since 1984. It will be conducted by the ENO’s Music Director Martyn Brabbins leading the ENO Orchestra and Chorus.
Heading the cast is leading mezzo-soprano Christine Rice. Elizabeth’s favourite, Robert Devereaux is sung by tenor Robert Murray, mezzo-soprano Paula Murrihy sings Robert’s wife Frances, Countess of Essex. Baritone Duncan Rock is Charles Blount, soprano Sophie Bevan MBE is Penelope, Lady Rich, Charles Rice is Sir Robert Cecil, David Soar is Sir Walter Raleigh, and Alex Otterburn is Henry Cuffe, with Alexandra Oomens as a Lady-in-Waiting, and Claire Barnett-Jones as a Housewife. Innocent Masuku sings the Spirit of the Masque.