Mary, Queen of Scots of 7 February 1587, Mary was told that she was to be executed the next morning. She spent the last hours of her life in prayer, distributing her belongings to her household, and writing her will and a letter to the King of France. The scaffold that was erected in the Great Hall was draped in black cloth. It was reached by two or three steps and furnished with the block, a cushion for her to kneel on and three stools, for her and the earls of Shrewsbury and Kent, who were there to witness the execution. The executioners (one
Mary, Queen of Scots (opera) Opera. Other significant later performances have included its first performance in German in a new production at the Städtische Bühnen Oper in Bielefeld (1984) and performances conducted by Musgrave at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco performed by San Francisco Spring Opera (1979). Mary's arias also appear in Musgrave's 40-minute triptych, "Three Women: Queen, Mistress, Slave", a narrated assemblage of scenes for the leading female characters from "Mary, Queen of Scots" and Musgrave's later operas, "Simon Bolivar", and "Harriet, the Woman Called Moses". The triptych had its world premiere in January 1999 at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco with