“…Mary Queen of Scots calls Elizabeth I ‘vil bastarda’ — a lowborn bastard. The phrase was considered so inflammatory back in 1835 that the La Scala world premiere was shut down after a single performance. At the Met, though, the emotional temperature ran a little lower. True, Joyce DiDonato’s Mary spat out those fighting words in a tangy chest voice, but it was hard to believe she meant them.” [New York Post]