Opera review: Maria Stuarda, at Cork Opera House

Tara Erraught shines in the title role of an impressive production from Irish National Opera 

Tara Erraught in Irish National Opera's production of Maria Stuarda. Picture: Pat Redmond

★★★★☆

Donizetti, the 19th-century Italian composer who wrote 70 operas is best known for Lucia di Lammermoor. Just three months after Lucia premiered in La Scala, Milan in 1835, his opera Maria Stuarda, premiered at the same house. It was not a good night. Both lead role singers were in poor voice and Donizetti himself described the evening as ‘painful from start to finish’.