Baker and Tinsley in ‘Mary Stuart’, Sadlers Wells Opera 1973

Three musical titans come together

Several years ago, in a conversation with Dame Janet Baker on her work with Benjamin Britten I asked her what she had most learnt from him. “The importance of words”, she immediately replied.  I said that it was her use of words that had for me turned a good opera into a blazing masterpiece.  “Oh what was that?” she asked in surprise.  I told her that it was Mary Stuart and she replied: “Well, I did read rather a lot about the subject, you know!”

I was working at Sadlers Wells Opera at the time and was at a relatively early stage on my journey in the opera profession.  I went to quite a few of the performances of Mary Stuart in 1973, when it was a new production.  Each time I marvelled at how Baker invested every single line she sang with strong meaning, not just through the music, but by a complete understanding of what the words were expressing.  I realised how strongly this sharpened the drama on stage and it was my first real lesson on how the use of words marked out a great singer from a good one.

This fastidious approach was typical of Janet Baker and it was matched by the opera’s conductor, Charles Mackerras.  He was not only a great opera conductor, but a serious scholar with a deep, precise knowledge of a wide range of music. I once bumped into him at a concert at the Edinburgh Festival in the interval before Abbado was to conduct Debussy’s La Mer with the enormous forces of the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester.  He told me to pay attention to the performance, as it would be the only time I’d hear it played by 16 cellos, which it was written for!

Maria Stuarda was first produced in 1834 at the Teatro Can Carlo in Naples, where the part of Mary was written by Donizetti for the high soprano Giuseppina Ronzi de Begnis, but censorship issues forced it close.  However, the superstar of the day Maria Malibran championed the work and pressured La Scala to revive it the following year.  Malibran had a contralto sfogato voice, a mezzo soprano with an extended top register.  So Donizetti had to rework the score, transposing many of Mary’s key vocal lines, arias and ensembles downwards.  The character of Mary thus changed to a warmer, more dramatic realm.  Donizetti made other changes, including adding an overture and a new Mary/Leicester love duet.

In preparing the opera Mackerras went back to the Malibran score and came up with a hybrid version for Sadlers Wells Opera.  He ditched the overture, but the new duet shifted the emotional and dramatic weight of the opera squarely onto Mary.  The contrast between the soprano Elizabeth and the mezzo-soprano Mary emphasised the dramatic tension between the two queens.

The scholarly approach of both Mackerras  and Baker did not, however, make for a dry evening, as both were supreme masters of drama.  The third essential part of the success of this production was Pauline Tinsley, who sang the part of Queen Elizabeth, and who was an equally electrifying singing-actress.  Her steely soprano (which could cope with Wagner and Strauss as well as Bel Canto parts) was in sharp contrast to Baker’s warm mezzo.  But both shared a heightened sense of intensity in their vocal line.  This all came to a head in the famous, and historically fictitious, scene in Act 2, where the two queens meet, leading to a catastrophic confrontation in which they hurl insults at each other.  Mary’s “Royal bastard”, spat out by Baker with total venom, still has the power to shock in this live recording.  Tinsley did not sing the part of Elizabeth in future revivals of the production and she was succeeded by very fine singers, but this first run has a special edge because of the equal match between two dramatic titans, supported by Charles Mackerras, spurring them on in the pit.

The production of Mary Stuart in December 1973 came at a difficult time for Sadlers Wells Opera.  The company was bedevilled by a number of strikes and at this time both the chorus and the stage hands were taking action.  But the production (with John Copley as a masterly director) was hailed as a triumph and a major achievement for the company, still relatively new to the London Coliseum.  The company changed its name to English National Opera the following year.

The opera’s broadcast by the BBC on December 29, 1973 was especially problematic.  The management persuaded the unions to drop their action for this one occasion because of its importance for the company.  It took place on the stage of the Coliseum but there was no scenery and the singers wore their own clothes.  I was present for the performance and remember it as being special, with the circumstances of the evening spurring everyone on to an extra effort.  The audience, too, cheered the team on with added enthusiasm.  It is likely that the recording in Music Preserved’s collection was made privately and not from the BBC relay.  Still, it gives a pretty good impression of what it was like to sit in on this momentous achievement.

Richard Jarman

August 2026

Gaetano Donizetti (1797 – 1848)

Mary Stuart (Maria Stuarda)

Track 1: Act 1

Track 2: Act 2

Track 3: Act 3

The opera was broadcast by the BBC from the London Coliseum on December 29 1973.  However, it is likely that this recording was made privately during the run of performances at that time.

The recording is from the Harewood Collection at Music Preserved.

Re-mastering by Roger Beardsley