At his “Vissi d’arte” blog, Opera Roanoke director Scott Williamson discusses the Metropolitan Opera’s production of  Donizetti’s “Maria Stuarta,” a dramatization of Protestant Queen Elizabeth’s imprisonment and execution of Catholic rival to the throne Mary Stuart.

The central chapter in Donizetti’s trilogy of operatic “Tudor Queens,” Maria Stuarda has one of the most famously explosive scenes in all of opera. It is unbelievable this 1835 musical drama is not reaching the Met stage until 2013. We are lucky to have the chance to experience this gripping historical character drama Saturday, January 19, at 12:55 pm, in the Whitman Auditorium of Virginia Western Community College.

Amy Cofield, Williamson’s wife, will be on hand before the broadcast to talk about her experiences working with mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, the Kansas native who plays Mary Stuart.

The opera takes some liberties with history, as creative works often do. Though Williamson cites an explosive face-to-face confrontation between Mary and Elizabeth as the the opera’s most infamous scene, in real life the rival queens never met.