I Puritani ed i Cavalieri

Abstract

I Puritani ed i Cavalieri is an opera that takes place towards the end of the English Civil War. Lord Walton’s daughter, Elvira, is in love with Lord Arthur Talbot, a cavalier and adherent of the Stuarts, but her father has promised her hand to Sir Richard Forth, like himself a follower of Cromwell. He relents, however, and Elvira is bidden by her uncle, Sir George Walton, to prepare for her nuptials with Arthur, for whom a safe conduct to the fortress has been provided. Queen Henrietta, widow of Charles I., is a prisoner in the fortress. On discovering that she is under sentence of death, Arthur, loyal to the Stuarts, enables her to escape by draping her in Elvira’s bridal veil and conducting her past the guards, as if she were the bride. [Excerpt.]