I won’t make many comments on this post. The piece speaks for itself. This is a scene taken from a 1982 production of Maria Stuarda, sung in English at the English National Opera (ENO). It is a favorite among opera fans. This was Dame Janet Baker’s last operatic performance. I hope that you enjoy it.
Donizetti, Maria Stuarda, Act II
Elizabeth
Find your answer, shameless woman,
in your desecrated marriage
and the man who was your husband;
in his Ghost that yells for vengeance;
in your kisses and your embraces;
and in your heart,
which for love’s debased delights,
stooped to murder and betrayal,
ever scheming some new crime.
Mary
(Help me, Leicester!
Let me leave here while there’s time.)
Leicester
Oh God! Be careful.
Cecil
Take my advice and never trust her,
she can never speak the truth.
Leicester
(to Mary)
Come, be calm, I do implore you,
there’s still hope, let me assure you.
Do not think it would bring dishonour
to receive a royal favour
or some grace that Heaven has
so many other times denied.
Elizabeth
What brave language you speak before me!
Tell me. Leicester…
Leicester
What can I say?
Elizabeth
Where are love’s fair charms still hiding,
and those glances, so confiding?
If so many sing her praises,
surely they’ve enjoyed her favours!
Mary
(Oh, how cruel!
I will stand no more, I swear!)
Ah, dear Leicester.
Elizabeth
Yes, the name of Mary Stuart
is dishonoured evermore!
Leicester (to Mary)
Oh, God! Be careful!
Restrain your anger.
Mary
You’d insult me, foul-mouthed usurper?
All
What presumption! Lady, be careful!
Elizabeth
Silence!
Mary
Ah no! Shameless daughter of a harlot!
Talbot
(Heaven help her!)
Mary
How dare you speak of dishonour?
You licentious, painted creature.
How I blush for your behaviour!
You’ve dishonoured
the throne of England,
royal bastard, all these years!
Elizabeth
Soldiers, come here!
All
This is madness, may Heaven help her.
From this hour no hope remains.
Her cause is lost for evermore!
Elizabeth
Go, prepare yourself for sentence,
go, await our final judgment.
You will not escape my vengeance,
that I firmly prophesy.
Take away this crazy woman
who condemns herself to die.
(Exit.)
Cecil
Heaven on high
has condemned this woman,
her last moment on earth is nigh…
Mary
Thanks to Heaven, at last she’s left me,
now I am able to breathe again.
At my feet her pride was humbled,
all her virtue proved a lie!
Hannah
What imprudence! You are lost now!
You’ve insulted a royal lady.
Any moment she’ll have vengeance,
that is useless to deny.
Leicester
I have lost you, foolish woman,
when I’d hoped for your salvation.
Though I proved your faithful saviour,
fate has set my plans awry.
Talbot
Oh, what imprudence! You are lost now.
You’ve insulted England’s Sovereign.
You must fear her royal vengeance,
that is useless to deny
Chorus
You have heard our Sovereign’s order,
with her wish you must comply.
Come, we charge you, stay no longer,
on vain hopes no more rely.
A traitor’s shameful death awaits you,
your last hour on earth is nigh.
(Elizabeth returns.)
Elizabeth
Go, arrest that foolish woman,
who condemns herself to die!
Mary
Yes, my triumph
calms the shame of days gone by.
Leicester
We part now, my beloved,
to meet again on high.
Hannah and Talbot
In your torment and terror,
who will deign to hear your cry?
Cecil
For this traitor and all her crimes,
Heaven’s judgment now is nigh.
Chorus
You have heard, etc.
(Mary is taken away by guards and soldiers.)
Dame Janet Baker, August 21, 1933
Janet Baker, in full Dame Janet Abbott Baker, (born August 21, 1933, Hatfield, Yorkshire, England), English operatic mezzo-soprano who was known for her vocal expression, stage presence, and effective diction. As a recitalist she was noted for her interpretations of the works of Gustav Mahler, Edward Elgar, and Johann Sebastian Bach.
Baker studied voice in London until 1956, when she won second prize in the Kathleen Ferrier Award, which paid for her studies at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. She made her operatic debut in 1956 at the Oxford University Opera Club as Roza in Friedrich Smetana’s The Secret and also sang Eduige in Rodelinda, the first of many memorable performances of the operatic roles of George Frideric Handel and other Baroque composers at the Barber Institute in Birmingham.
In 1962 Baker sang the female lead in Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and was Polly in Benjamin Britten’s The Beggar’s Opera the following year. In 1971 she created the role of Kate Julian, written especially for her, in Britten’s Owen Wingrave, first for television and then for the stage. She also won the Hamburg Shakespeare Prize that year. She performed successfully in the Raymond Leppard revivals of early Italian operas, notably as Penelope in Claudio Monteverdi’s Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in patria in 1972. She sang the 1975 premiere performance of Dominick Argento’s song cycle From the Diary of Virginia Woolf, which won the Pulitzer Prize. Baker retired in 1982. That year Full Circle: An Autobiographical Journal, an account of her last year onstage, was published.
Baker later served as chancellor of the University of York (1991–2004). She was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1976 and a Companion of Honor in 1994.
Dame Janet is sometimes criticized as having only one sound. This may be true, but it is a beautifully expressive sound.
Dame Rosalind Plowright
May 21 1949
Rosalind Plowright’s career spans almost 50 years. She was acclaimed as one of the world’s great spinto sopranos specialising in roles such as Medée, Alceste and Norma as well as the great Verdi and Puccini heroines. Plowright has sung at nearly all the international opera houses such as the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Paris Opera, Vienna State Opera, Bavarian State Opera in Munich, the Grand Theatre de Genève, and at the Arena di Verona.
Rosalind Plowright entered the dramatic mezzo repertoire in 1999 with roles such as Amneris in Aida, the Principessa in Adriana Lecouvreur, La Zia Principessa in Suor Angelica, Klytämnestra in Elektra and Madame de Croissy in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmelites.
Plowright made her Glyndebourne Festival debut in 2018 as The Old Baroness Vanessa. She was awarded the OBE in 2007 for her services to music.
Sir Charles Mackerras
November 17, 1925 – July 14, 2010
Sir Charles Mackerras worked as a conductor for over six decades and was known for his broad musical interests and willingness to experiment within classical music. He played a role in promoting composers such as Handel and Janacek, and his approach to musical interpretation was often scholarly and detailed. Throughout his career, Mackerras contributed to the performance of opera and orchestral music, and his dedication to research and new methods influenced the classical music scene and the work of his peers.