This was one of several concert pieces that Britten extracted from his 1953 coronation opera, a work which has only received its rightful due in recent years. The operas dramatic core is the unfolding relationship between Elizabeth I and the Earl of Essex, the Queen torn between her private affection for the Earl and her sense of public duty when he is found guilty of treason and condemned to death. The sound-world has an appropriatelyElizabethan atmosphere, the famous Courtly Dances evoking a period flavour without ever lapsing into pastiche. The Suite begins with the bracing Tournament music that opens the opera, followed by the