Untitled Elizabeth I Project
An Electro-Opera, currently in development.
This is the story of how Elizabeth I became “The Virgin Queen” — winning the heart of her divided nation by a lie.
ACT I
At the start of the action, Elizabeth’s audacious cousin Mary (the former) Queen of Scots, has been chased out of her country by her own people. She throws herself on Elizabeth’s mercy.
Mary's presence riles up her Catholic supporters in England. Elizabeth jails Mary. The tension in the street builds and a young revolutionary, recently returned from Rome, attempts to kill Elizabeth.
The rebels go to the streets, demanding that the Catholic Mary be installed on Elizabeth's throne.
TELL THE OCEAN (sung by Mary, backed up by the Catholic's Chorus) comes at the end of act I when the chaos is at its height, Elizabeth has disappeared and her ministers have demanded Mary call off the rebels:
ACT II
The rebels swear their allegiance to Mary and demand that England go back to the Catholics. Confronting the rebels has only served to make their hatred of Elizabeth stronger. Elizabeth finally decides that to save England, she has to win hearts of her people, and she will have to compromise Truth to do so.
She makes a daring reappearance,”rising from the dead," reborn as the Virgin Queen. The rebels are enraptured by the spectacle and demand the death Mary, who they now “see” is a pretender.
In the finale, the rebels pledge their allegiance to the resurrected Elizabeth. Their reborn Queen looks uneasily toward the future, and what will come of having won her people's hearts by a lie: