Rating: 
Summary: THE SUPREME ACHIEVEMENT.
Review: Being a great fan of Beverly Sills, I have listened to all of her recordings. She was a brilliant Violetta (Traviata) and a powerful Lucia, but the role of Queen Elizabeth I in Donizetti's ROBERTO DEVEREUX was, in my opinion, her greatest achievement. This live video performance is gripping. Her singing is superb and her acting is inspired. She IS Elizabeth, in all of her glory and her despair. Many have compared her performance to that of the great Bette Davis as Queen Elizabeth and I would agree with that judgement. This is the paramount performance of Sills' illustrious career.
Rating:
Summary: Roberto Devereux or should I say Roberto Sills
Review: Beverley Sills would have to be one of the greatest singer/actresses to come out of America in all time. The power and range of voice coupled with her commanding stage presence leaves one spell bound. Having seen her live on stage in San Francisco as Massenet's "Thaïs," in 1976, just one year after this present recording, however, both rolls quite different as chalk and cheese, the flirtatious character of the courtesan Thaïs to the powerful dramatic roll of Queen Elizabeth I, Queen of England; shows us just how great a performer Miss Sills is. Her supporting cast is equally capable of keeping up with her. Susan Marsee as Sara is both striking and in total control of her character and voice (even if the cover shows Richard Fredricks in the roll. I think he had better stick to his original roll as Nottingham, Sara's husband).
Once again I must mention that John Alexander in the title roll of Roberto Devereux, has not been a voice that I admired. I felt it far too thin and his high notes rather strained, but matched against Miss Sills he manages to stand his ground and give a commanding performance. The Duet Roberto has with Sara in Act I, scene 2 "Tutto è silenzio....Dacchè tornasti, ahi misera!....Ah! quest'addio fatale" is beautifully sung and one of my favourite pieces from the opera.
Richard Fredricks as Nottingham, Sara's husband has a powerful voice and stage presence he brings to his character. The rest of the cast are adequate and make this a memorable performance. My only real criticism of the production is that a couple of times the characters go off mike and there was a loss of volume and clarity of voice, but apart from that, this is an opera well worth adding to your collection apart from it's historical state but to see one of America's greatest opera stars at work.
Rating:
Summary: Great DVD -- Amazing Beverly Sills
Review: Beverly Sills is great in this DVD. Her fiery, nuanced, totally believable performance of Queen Elizabeth makes up for her out-of-prime singing. She is incredible. She conveys stage magic to the audience. Her movements are perfectly calculated, but seem completely spontaneous on stage. Sills is truly a national treasure. This role is very difficult, but Sills pushes her voice bravely to meet its insane demands. Yes, her lower register is very weak, but she is very adept at using it effectively.
Rating:
Summary: Long Live The Queen
Review: Beverly Sills is the queen of opera. There is no other soprano in the twentieth century other than Maria Callas who could master a variety of roles with vocal beauty and great dramatic performance. Her career was short lived, after singing operetta and a utility singer in her home town of New York she had two children with impediments that she raised and later a cancer operation. She had enormous versatility on the stage; singing first Cleopatra in Handel's Julius Caesar, Violetta from La Traviata a reported 54 times, Manon, the three heroines from Offenbach's Tales of Hoffman, the three Donizetti Queens including Anna Bolena and Maria Stuarda, Lucia Di Lammermoor, Norma and several others. If you are familiar with the three reissued recordings of the Tudor Queens trilogy by Donizetti, you are also aware that Sill's performance as Queen Elizabeth was her crowning achievement. This DVD is a jewel to watch and a pleasure to hear. Opera lovers and fans of Beverly Sills will enjoy as we watch her fiery performance. Queen Elizabeth becomes jealous when Deveraux, the man she loves and her naval commander, takes an interest in another lady of her court. She orders his execution on grounds of treason but only we know her decision was far more personal. This performance earned Beverly Sills a cover on Time magazine, she was hailed worldwide for her vocal mastership and she is still loved and talked about even to this day. Presently she is the chairman at the Met in New York and has discovered many great opera singers performing in our time. See for yourself the great passion that Donizetti was full of when he composed this magnificent opera. Five Stars. Long live the Queen of Opera!
Rating: 
Summary: bad video, poor sound
Review: I can't hear the great Sills, I'll recommend her roberto in cd instead. Wolftrap has bed accoustics. I was there, and Sills was great. But the recording is badly miked. She sounds thin and can hardly be heard.
Rating: 
Summary: A Wonderful Sills' Video!
Review: I certainly agree with other customers that this was a great performance by Sills and I enjoyed the supporting cast as well! The makeup and costumes were unbelievable!! I purchased VHS, found picture and sound excellent. Having a large LD collection; not anxious to invest in DVD just yet. Certainly recommend this to anyone as a good buy - especially if you also like her "3 Queens" CD set. Only just received and watched once but intend to watch it many more times and look forward to sharing it with my opera friends. Gave it 4 stars only in comparison to other operas that I prefer. The quality of the singing, production and recording are just fine! A wonderful remembrance of a truly favorite soprano!! I sometimes forget how really great she was! This video will remind you that she was special and an outstanding singing actress!
Rating: 
Summary: Lesser Donizetti
Review: I felt this opera and this production were inferior to others I have heard or seen. I am homosexual, so it was not homophobia that made me disgusted to see that at least Roberto had apparently plucked his eyesbrows and was wearing mascara. Everyone's acting was pleasant, Sara's husband made me hate him so he was good, Sara was good enough, Sills' was an extremely self-indulgent regal queen, dismissing people disdainfully, indifferently with a flick of the wrist, pushing people out of the way, all in exquisite character I thought. In fact, she made a nice contrast between the selfish pampered queen and all too human woman, I thought. However, she spent the first 1/3 of the opera in a fury and the last 2/3 in agony. It got tiresome and repetitious, but that's what was written. I was very uncomfortable with Roberto all the way around. The music wasn't as good as I'm used to and have come to expect from Donizetti I thought, though I've never heard anything by him I actually disliked. You really had to listen for the tunes (caught one, that was all), and that last high note that goes sailing up to the balcony (the kind that Sutherland was famous for) was indeed the last note, the last note of the whole show, there were no others! I won't succumb to the temptation to comment on the reviewer who compared the acting of (who else?) Callas, Sutherland and Sills. There are sopranos today that are more convincing than all three of them! One last word on the music. I'm going to keep and watch this DVD again, probably I think many times, because I feel there is more to be gotten out of it than I did at one time through (though I have the opera on CD also with Sills and always thought I liked it, in fact I have all the 3 queens with Sills on CD, and when the us postal service condescends to get Maria Stuarda to me, I'll have all three on DVD too, Stuarda an obscure Italian group that is supposed to be very good, I hope so). On the other hand, if I'm as disappointed on subsequent viewings/hearings as I was with the first, I may put this DVD alongside Don Carlos and cut my losses.
Rating:
Summary: Lesser Donizetti
Review: I felt this opera and this production were inferior to others I have heard or seen. I am homosexual, so it was not homophobia that made me disgusted to see that at least Roberto had apparently plucked his eyesbrows and was wearing mascara. Everyone's acting was pleasant, Sara's husband made me hate him so he was good, Sara was good enough, Sills' was an extremely self-indulgent regal queen, dismissing people disdainfully, indifferently with a flick of the wrist, pushing people out of the way, all in exquisite character I thought. In fact, she made a nice contrast between the selfish pampered queen and all too human woman, I thought. However, she spent the first 1/3 of the opera in a fury and the last 2/3 in agony. It got tiresome and repetitious, but that's what was written. I was very uncomfortable with Roberto all the way around. The music wasn't as good as I'm used to and have come to expect from Donizetti I thought, though I've never heard anything by him I actually disliked. You really had to listen for the tunes (caught one, that was all), and that last high note that goes sailing up to the balcony (the kind that Sutherland was famous for) was indeed the last note, the last note of the whole show, there were no others! I won't succumb to the temptation to comment on the reviewer who compared the acting of (who else?) Callas, Sutherland and Sills. There are sopranos today that are more convincing than all three of them! One last word on the music. I'm going to keep and watch this DVD again, probably I think many times, because I feel there is more to be gotten out of it than I did at one time through (though I have the opera on CD also with Sills and always thought I liked it, in fact I have all the 3 queens with Sills on CD, and when the us postal service condescends to get Maria Stuarda to me, I'll have all three on DVD too, Stuarda an obscure Italian group that is supposed to be very good, I hope so). On the other hand, if I'm as disappointed on subsequent viewings/hearings as I was with the first, I may put this DVD alongside Don Carlos and cut my losses.
Rating:
Summary: Viva La Regina
Review: If I were forced to choose only ONE of my opera-DVD and Video-collection I's choose this one without another thought. I'm a history-buff and knowing the story of Elizabeth I. pretty well let me tell you that Sill's presence equals that of the divine Glenda Jackson, the actress who played Elizabeth I. in BBC's highly acclaimed mini-series "Elizabeth R." (R. stands for Regina)!!!! Add to this a woman who's BURNING up the stage with her thrilling voice! Beverly once said that this Elisabetta cut off at least 5 years of her career. But WHAT a performance this is!!! Beats Edita Gruberova EASILY. If you love opera and great singing RUN to buy this and be drawn into history!
Rating:
Summary: The Dramatic Fire And Fury Of Roberto Devereux
Review: In 1975, about four or five years after Beverly Sills first performed the feisty Queen Elizabeth in New York City's Opera, she once again dazzled audiences at the Wolf Trap Festival. Performing with her that night was John Alexander in the tenor role of Robert Devereux, Susan Marsee in the mezzo-dramatic role of the Duchess Sara and Richard Fredricks in the baritone role of Nottingham. Julius Rudel conducts. He is an esteemed and long-time conductor, who has worked with Beverly Sills before in such operas as Anna Bolena, Manon and La Traviata. Julius Rudel has excellent power as a conductor, with thoughtful precision and dynamics that fuel the orchestra to dramatic heights. From 1969-1975 Beverly Sills was busy expanding her originally light lyric repertoire to the dramatic intensity of such operas as Roberto Devereux, Lucrezia Borgia ands Bellini's Norma. Many opera critics note how Beverly's transformation from light "head" voice to the heavy "chest voice" cost her career to be shortened. But Beverly has herself admitted that it was worth it. And this Roberto Devereux performance proves that it was indeed worth it.
Susan Marsee has worked with Beverly Sills before. There are studio recordings of Offenbach's Tales Of Hoffman, one of Beverly's favorite operas, in which Susan Marsee sings the role of Nicklause and the Muse. Susan Marsee is primarily a mezzo soprano but shows signs of soprano lyricism. As the Duchess Sara, the secret rival to Queen Elizabeth - they are both in love with the same man Roberto Devereux, Susan Marsee potrays an anguished and long suffering Elizabethan lady of the court. She has been married out of sheer convenience to Nottingham and her love for Devereux we assume has never been consumated. Susan Marsee's first aria, sung in unison with the chorus of ladies of the court is heavy with sorrow and suffering. Beverly's first aria, the Queen's "L'amor suo me fe beata" follows the same kind of tender romance, as the Queen is hopeful that Devereux loves her. She is a lot more festive in spirit in the coloratura showcase "A ritorno qual ti spera". When Devereux first makes his apperance, John Alexander kneels before the Queen who makes it quite clear she loves him. Note the slow string section which plays, further enhanced in their duet "Un tenero core". Their relationship, nonetheless, is a rocky one, for the Queen suspects Devereux loves another woman. Although she point-blank asks him if he loves another, he lies to her by saying he does not. The intensity of the fast-paced duet "Un lampo orribile" is very indicative of the tense, dramatic chemistry between Queen Elizabeth and Devereux, which is the real fire in the opera. I feel sadly that John Alexander is not suited in this performance for the role of Devereux. Originally, Placido Domingo sang the role. He created a standard that most tenors tackle. Domingo has the perfect romantic heroism and the voice. Not that John Alexander does not have "the voice" for Devereux but he simply puts little effort into his performance and his effiminate, Cowardly Lion looks make him inappropriate as Roberto Devereux, who should come off as very masculine but tormented and torn between duty and love. Also the prison scene is very generic and unsatisfying. Baritone Richard Fredricks is also very wooden in this performance and does not provide much of the drama. He is supposed to play a villain. He betrays his best friend Devereux and practically carries out the execution himself once he discovers it is Devereux whom his wife Sara truly loves. The reason for getting this is Beverly Sill's powerful performance as Queen Elizabeth. In white make-up, heavy Elizabethan regial wardrobe, imperious poses and in her dramatic soprano voice, Beverly became the real Queen Elizabeth in what could pass for an Oscar winning opera performance. She landed a cover in Time magazine in November of 1971. From her facial contortions, raging screams (mostly expressing her fury in Act 2), pointig her finger in accusation at Devereux, slapping Devereux and her grief and torture after learning he has been executed in the final act (at one point even pushing Nottingham after learning that he is most responsible for Devereux' death "Spietato Cor!" "Heartless man!"). This is Beverly Sills at her best, surpassing all the sopranos who have dared to take on the role of the commanding Queen Elizabeth - Leyla Gencer who started the tradition back in World War II days, Montserrat Caballe who sang the Queen in the 60's and Edita Gruberova in the 80's. Even today's sopranos who take up the challenge of performing as the Queen fail to deliver the same power and majesty with which Beverly Sills infused her unrivaled performance.
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