Where would we be without the Tudors? Certainly our shelves, stages and screens would seem empty without their era which ran from 1485 when Henry VII defeated Richard III at Bosworth to the death of Elizabeth I in 1603.

Opera has made good use of them, particularly Donizetti with his three ‘Tudor Queens’ operas: Elizabeth I in Maria Sturda and Roberto Deveraux and his opera about her mother, Anna Bolena which is coming to the Sydney Opera House (July 2-26).