It was Beverly Sills who inspired the notion of the "Three Donizetti Queens," the three heroines (actually there are four if one counts Il castello di Kenilworth) of Donizetti operas that were set during England's Tudor period and ushered in a new tragic spirit in Italian opera. However, even Sills never put together an album like Diana Damrau's Tudor Queens, which cleverly straddles the line between recital and full opera treatment. Damrau could easily enough have assembled an album of tuneful Donizetti arias, and opera lovers would have lapped it up. Instead, she offers solid chunks of Act II of Anna Bolena, Act III of Maria Stuarda, and Act III of Roberto Devereux, including choruses and the dramatic scenes that pointed so clearly toward Verdi's heroines. This is a strong idea for several reasons, only one of which is that Damrau, about to enter her sixth decade, can't match the agility Sills brought to this music in her prime. She has an excellent dramatic sense, though, deeper than she would have brought to the music earlier in her career, and she gets superb support from the Santa Cecilia Orchestra under Antonio Pappano, who gets the chance to unwind a bit. The bottom line is that this is a recital album that gives a feeling for what the whole operas are like, and it would make a good introduction to these operas for anyone.