Language: English
Subtitles: French, German, Italian, Spanish

Gloriana, is an opera in three acts by Benjamin Britten to an English libretto by William Plomer, based on Lytton Strachey's 1928 Elizabeth and Essex: A Tragic History. The first performance was presented at the Royal Opera House, London, in 1953 during the celebrations of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Gloriana was the name given by the 16th-century poet Edmund Spenser to his character representing Queen Elizabeth I in his poem The Faerie Queene. It became the popular name given to Elizabeth I.

The opera depicts the relationship between Queen Elizabeth and the Earl of Essex, and was composed for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in June 1953. Several in the audience of its gala opening were disappointed by the opera, which presents the first Elizabeth as a sympathetic, but flawed, character motivated largely by vanity and desire.

If Gloriana occupies a unique place in Britten's operas, it is also by the unprecedented scale (and without continuation) of the resources summoned in 1953 by the composer who, moreover, was not limited to the living forces of Covent Garden. While the corps de ballet had to perform the pavane, gaillarde and other current played in the II, without forgetting this volta that Elizabeth claims - whose steps are here nicely regulated by Colm Serry - Gloriana lined up a host of extras and a mastery in addition to the Opera choir to give voice to the “boys of Essex”.

Director: David McVicar (Director), Ivor Bolton (Music Conductor), Andrés Máspero (Choir Director)
Cast: Elisabeth I: Anna Caterina Antonacci, Robert Devereux: Leonardo Capalbo, Frances: Paula Murrihy, Lord Mountjoy: Duncan Rock, Penelope: Sophie Bevan, Sir Robert Cecil: Leigh Melrose, Sir Walter Raleigh: David Soar, Henry Cuffe: Benedict Nelson, A Lady-in-Waiting: Elena Copons, A Blind Ballad-Singer: James Creswell, The Recorder of Norwich: Scott Wilde, A Housewife: Itxaro Mentxaka, The Spirit of the Masque: Sam Furness, The Master of C, Coro y Orquesta Titulares del Teatro Real, Pequeños Cantores de la JORCAM