Fresh from her triumph in the Met's The Enchanted Island, mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, one of the world's most exciting singers, takes on the virtuosic bel canto role of the doomed Mary, Queen of Scots. Having scored a major success with his production of Anna Bolena, director David McVicar now turns to the second opera of Donizetti's Tudor trilogy, which explores regal characters at fateful moments of their lives. Elza van den Heever sings Elizabeth I, and Maurizio Benini conducts.