With Roberto Devereux, Melbourne Opera completes the Donizetti Tudor trilogy including Anna Bolena (2015) and Maria Stuarda (2016); the first time this achievement has been accomplished in the country. Roberto Devereux is a mature work, written just after Lucia di Lammermoor though not Donizetti’s most accomplished opera. The libretto by Cammarano is thin in both substance and subtlety and the music is not the composer’s finest, yet we were all grateful to hear this rarely performed work for its opening run by Melbourne Opera.

^{Henry Choo and Helena Dix. Photograph © Robin Halls}

The old Athenaeum Theatre on Collins Street (completed in 1842) that hosts pop productions alongside opera is a grand old lady, though now tatty at the edges.  The acoustics of the theatre are as dry as a biscuit with no bloom on the sound whatsoever; when the music stops, it stops into utter silence.

The story over three acts (set in 1599-1601 when the Virgin Queen would have been in her late 60s) tells of Sara, Duchess of Nottingham and the Monarch, both in love with the same man (Robert Devereaux, Earl of Essex) about to be...