“Mary Stuart” is an opera about love and power by Sergei Slonimsky (1932–2020), one of the most prominent representatives of Russian academic music at the turn of the 21st century. Slonimsky’s opera was inspired by the story of the Queen of Scots and France as it was recounted in the biography by Stefan Zweig. As known, Mary was executed by Elizabeth I, Queen of England. The libretto included stylized folk ballads and poems by William Blake and the Queen of Scots herself. The score combines Scottish tunes, stylizations in the vein of late Renaissance madrigals, and expressionist sound. “This is old Scotland. Heard by the composer of our days,” wrote a Leningrad newspaper after the premiere in 1981. The opera was recorded by Melodiya in 1983 and performed by artists of the Leningrad Maly Opera and Ballet Theatre.
