It’s a wonder the Elizabethans could muster a force to see off the Armada, what with their queen later got up like Vivienne Westwood and embroiled in an all-consuming love entanglement with Robert, the Earl of Essex.

Well, that's how Donizetti and the designers of this production see it in his opera Roberto Devereux, the final in a trio of the composer’s Tudor-themed works presented by WNO this autumn.

After Anna Bolena and Maria Stuarda, we know that composers take liberties with historical accuracy, either in the interests of a story or to illustrate their political views.

The drama in the third opera lies in both the weakening of Elizabeth's hold on matters of state and her complicated love for Essex. The confrontations are Verdian in their intensity. Robert Devereux turns out to be a much-underrated work.

Despite weaknesses in Maria Stuarda, the trilogy has been a triumph of will and imagination for WNO, and some terrific singing in this third opera, particularly from Alexandra Deshorties as Elizabeth, make it the most captivating of the three. Leah-Marian Jones (Sarah), Leonardo Capalbo (Robert), David Kempster (the Duke) and Geraint Dodd (Lord Cecil) give performances of consistent high quality.

Director Alessandro Talevi and designer Madeleine Boyd’s only fault is over-stylisation and one comical attempt at skewed symbolism - the giant spider's contraption sometimes occupied by the queen. We don’t need to be reminded that her political reach has been like a cobweb - one about to shredded in the wind.

The find of the production, as it was of Anna Bolena, is Daniele Rustioni‘s conducting of the exemplary WNO orchestra.