This Sunday night at 8, two of English history's greatest queens confront each other in Donizetti's Maria Stuarda, sung in English with a cast led by Dame Janet Baker as Maria, and Rosalind Plowright as Elizabeth. Sir Charles Mackerras conducts this live performance by the English National Opera with the company's orchestra and chorus.
They never met in life, but Fredrich Schiller, on whose play the libretto is based, corrected that mistake, using letters between the two Queens as the basis for their confrontation. Today they lie barely ten feet apart in Westminster Abbey, thanks to James I of England, Queen Mary's son, who moved her body to London after he came to power.