About the work
Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra is a dramma per musica in two acts by Gioachino Rossini to a libretto by Giovanni Schmidt, based on Carlo Federici's play Il paggio di Leicester and, indirectly, on Sophia Lee's novel The Recess. It premiered on 4 October 1815 at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, the first of nine works Rossini wrote for that house.
Plot
Queen Elisabetta loves her victorious general Leicester, who has secretly married Matilde, daughter of the executed Mary, Queen of Scots. When the Duke of Norfolk exposes the marriage, the wounded queen has the couple condemned for treason. Only when Norfolk himself plots against her and the couple's loyalty becomes clear does Elisabetta pardon Leicester and Matilde, renouncing her own happiness.
Cultural significance
With this opera Rossini abandoned dry, harpsichord-accompanied recitative throughout in favour of orchestrated recitative, and for the first time wrote out the vocal ornamentation in full instead of leaving it to the singers. The work established his reputation in Naples; in 1822 Rossini himself conducted a performance in Vienna.