Composers: Donizetti
Compositions: Il Castello di Kenilworth
Performers: Jessica Pratt s, Carmela Remigio ms, Stefan Pop bar, Xabier Anduaga t, Orchestra Donizetti Opera/Riccardo Frizza
Catalogue Number: Dynamic 37834 (DVD), 57834 (Blu-ray)

People talk of Donizetti’s three queens, but did you know there’s a fourth? A year before Anna Bolena, six before Maria Stuarda and eight before Roberto Devereux, the master of Bergamo first tried his hand at Tudor politics with Elisabetta al Castello di Kenilworth. Based on Walter Scott’s 1821 Kenilworth, it’s a piece of historical flummery with formulaic musical constructs, but it has the virtue of several top-notch...