Maria Stuarda is the most popular work in Gaetano Donizetti´s triology of bel canto operas on Tudor queens, a triology that also includes Anna Bolena and Roberto Devereux. The production of Venice´s beautiful Teatro La Fenice, which was gloriously rebuilt after the fire of 1996, shows Queen Mary and her embittered foe Elizabeth both as prisoners of passion for the same man, trapped in a labyrinth that is the central set-element in Italian-based Franco-Tunisian director Denis Krief´s staging. “To conjure up… hatred and jealousy, you don´t need a stage setting, just two splendid prima donnas: Sonia Ganassi and Fiorenza Cedolins.” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung)