Anna Bolena is a tragic opera (tragedia lirica) in two acts composed by Gaetano Donizetti. Felice Romani wrote the Italian libretto after Ippolito Pindemonte's Enrico VIII ossia Anna Bolena and Alessandro Pepoli's Anna Bolena, both recounting the life of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of England's King Henry VIII.
It is one of four operas by Donizetti dealing with the Tudor period in English history—in composition order, Il castello di Kenilworth (1829), Anna Bolena (1830), Maria Stuarda (named for Mary, Queen of Scots, it appeared in different forms in 1834 and 1835), and Roberto Devereux (1837, named for a putative lover of Queen Elizabeth I of England). The leading female characters of the latter three operas are often referred to as "the Three Donizetti Queens."
Anna Bolena premiered on 26 December 1830 at the Teatro Carcano in Milan, to "overwhelming success." Weinstock notes that only after this success did Donizetti's teacher, Johann Simon Mayr, "address his former pupil as Maestro." The composer had begun "to emerge as one of three most luminous names in the world of Italian opera", The New York premiere of the opera, and the first Italian presentation of the work in the United States, took place at the Astor Opera House on January 7, 1850, with conductor Max Maretzek and Apollonia Bertucca in the title role. It appears to have been presented in Europe, up to 1850, in 25 cities and then again in 1881 in Livorno. After the rise of verismo, On 26 June 1959, the Santa Fe Opera mounted the first fully staged production of the work since 1839. Several famous modern sopranos have lent their voices to the role, including Leyla Gencer, Montserrat Caballé, Marisa Galvany, Renata Scotto, Edita Gruberova and Mariella Devia. In the 1970s, Beverly Sills earned a considerable degree of fame when she appeared in all three of Donizetti's "Tudor" operas at the New York City Opera. (She also made studio recordings of all three operas.) And Anna was one of the last new roles performed by Dame Joan Sutherland, at San Francisco Opera in 1984.
While not yet part of the "standard repertory", Anna Bolena is increasingly performed today, and there are several recordings.
It was presented by the Dallas Opera in November 2010, which has also staged Maria Stuarda. The Minnesota Opera presented Anna Bolena as part of the "Three Queens" trilogy. The Vienna State Opera gave it in the Spring of 2011, with Anna Netrebko in the title role and Elīna Garanča as Giovanna Seymour. New York's Metropolitan Opera mounted it for the first time in September 2011, opening the company's 2011–2012 season, with Netrebko and with David McVicar directing. Opera Seria UK in Manchester, England, staged Anna Bolena in 2012 as the first in their "Tudor Queens" trilogy, which continues into 2014. And the Welsh National Opera presented the trilogy between September and November 2013, in many different venues in Britain. The Lyric Opera of Chicago also included Anna Bolena in their 2014–2015 season. Sondra Radvanovsky has sung the title role at several opera houses including the Met in 2015.
Roles
{| class="wikitable"
!Role
!Voice type
!Premiere Cast, 26 December 1830<br />(Conductor: - )
|-
|Anna Bolena (Anne Boleyn)
|soprano
|Giuditta Pasta
|-
|Enrico (Henry VIII)
|bass
|Filippo Galli
|-
|Giovanna Seymour (Jane Seymour), Anna's lady-in-waiting
|mezzo-soprano
|Elisa Orlandi
|-
|Lord Rochefort (George Boleyn), Anna's brother
|bass
|Lorenzo Biondi
|-
|Riccardo Percy (Henry Percy, 6th Earl of Northumberland)
|tenor
|Giovanni Battista Rubini
|-
|Smeton (Mark Smeaton), musician
|contralto
|Henriette Laroche
|-
|Hervey, court official
|tenor
|Antonio Crippa
|-
| colspan="3"|Courtiers, soldiers, huntsmen
|}
Synopsis
:Time: 1536
:Place: Windsor and London
|-
|1957
|Maria Callas,<br/>Nicola Rossi-Lemeni,<br/>Giulietta Simionato,<br/>Gianni Raimondi
|Gianandrea Gavazzeni,<br/>Orchestra and Chorus of La Scala, Milan<br/>(Recorded live on 14 April)
|CD: EMI<br/>Cat: CDMB
|-
|1958
|Leyla Gencer,<br/>Plinio Clabassi,<br/>Giulietta Simionato,<br/>Aldo Bertocci
|Gianandrea Gavazzeni,<br/>Orchestra Sinfonica e Coro della RAI di Milano
|CD: Andromeda<br/>Cat: ANDRCD 5114
|-
|1965
|Leyla Gencer,<br/>Carlo Cava,<br/>Patricia Johnson,<br/>Juan Oncina
|Gianandrea Gavazzeni, Glyndebourne Festival,<br/>London Philharmonic Orchestra,<br/>Glyndebourne Festival Chorus<br/>(Recorded live on 13 June)
|CD: Hunt<br/>Cat: CD 554
|-
|1967
|Teresa Żylis-Gara,<br/>Karl Ridderbusch,<br/>Vera Little<br/>Gene Ferguson
|Alberto Erede,<br/>Orchester und Chor des Westdeutschen Rundfunks Cologne
|CD: Opera Depot<br/>Cat: OD 10388-2
|-
|1968/69
|Elena Souliotis,<br/>Nicolai Ghiaurov,<br/>Marilyn Horne,<br/>John Alexander
|Silvio Varviso,<br/>Vienna State Opera Orchestra and Chorus<br/>
|CD: Decca<br/>Cat:
|-
|1972
|Beverly Sills,<br/>Paul Plishka,<br/>Shirley Verrett,<br/>Stuart Burrows
|Julius Rudel,<br/>London Symphony Orchestra<br/>John Alldis Choir
|CD: DG Westminster Legacy<br/>Cat:
|-
|1975
|Renata Scotto,<br/>Samuel Ramey,<br/>Susanne Marsee,<br/>Stanley Kolk
|Julius Rudel,<br/>Opera Company of Philadelphia<br/>(Recorded "live" on December 16)
|CD: Opera Depot<br/>Cat:
|-
|1984
|Joan Sutherland,<br/>James Morris,<br/>Judith Forst,<br/>Michael Myers
|Richard Bonynge,<br/>Orchestra and Chorus of the Canadian Opera Company
|DVD: VAI<br/>Cat: 4203
|-
|1987
|Dame Joan Sutherland,<br/>Samuel Ramey,<br/>Susanne Mentzer,<br/>Jerry Hadley
|Richard Bonynge,<br/>Orchestra and Chorus of the Welsh National Opera
|CD: Decca<br/> Cat: 421 096-2
|-
|1994
|Edita Gruberova,<br/>Stefano Palatchi,<br/>Delores Ziegler,<br/>Jose Bros
|Elio Boncompagni,<br/>Hungarian Radio Chorus and Orchestra
|CD: Nightingale Classics<br/>Cat: NCO
|-
|2006
|,<br/>Riccardo Zanellato,<br/>Sofia Soloviy,<br/>Gianluca Pasolini
|Fabrizio Maria Carminati,<br/>Orchestra and Chorus of the<br/>Bergamo Musica Festival Gaetano Donizetti<br/>(Recorded at Teatro Donizetti in October)
|DVD: Dynamic<br/>Cat: 33534
|-
|2011
|Anna Netrebko,<br/>Ildebrando D'Arcangelo,<br/>Elīna Garanča,<br/>Francesco Meli
|Evelino Pidò,<br/> Orchestra and Chorus of the Vienna State Opera
|DVD: Deutsche Grammophon<br/> DDD 0440 073 4725 6 GH2
|-
|2011
|Anna Netrebko,<br/>Ildar Abdrazakov,<br/>Edita Gruberova,<br/>Stephen Costello
|Marco Armiliato,<br/>Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus<br/>(Production: David McVicar)
|HD video:<br />Met Opera on Demand
|-
|2016
|Sondra Radvanovsky,<br/>Ildar Abdrazakov,<br/>Milijana Nikolic,<br/>Stephen Costello
|Marco Armiliato,<br/>Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus
|Streaming audio:<br />Met Opera on Demand
|-
|}
See also
- Anne Boleyn in popular culture
References
Notes
Cited sources
- Osborne, Charles, (1994), The Bel Canto Operas of Rossini, Donizetti, and Bellini, Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press.
- Scott, Eleanor (1976), The First Twenty Years of The Santa Fe Opera, Santa Fe, New Mexico: Sunstone Press
- Weinstock, Herbert (1963), Donizetti and the World of Opera in Italy, Paris, and Vienna in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century, New York: Pantheon Books.
Other sources
- Allitt, John Stewart (1991), Donizetti: in the light of Romanticism and the teaching of Johann Simon Mayr, Shaftesbury: Element Books, Ltd (UK); Rockport, MA: Element, Inc.(USA)
- Ashbrook, William (1982), Donizetti and His Operas, Cambridge University Press.
- Ashbrook, William (1998), "Donizetti, Gaetano" in Stanley Sadie (Ed.), The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, Vol. One. London: Macmillan Publishers, Inc.
- Ashbrook, William and Sarah Hibberd (2001), in Holden, Amanda (Ed.), The New Penguin Opera Guide, New York: Penguin Putnam. . pp. 224 – 247.
- Black, John (1982), Donizetti's Operas in Naples, 1822—1848. London: The Donizetti Society.
- Loewenberg, Alfred (1970). Annals of Opera, 1597-1940, 2nd edition. Rowman and Littlefield
- Sadie, Stanley, (Ed.); John Tyrell (Exec. Ed.) (2004), The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. 2nd edition. London: Macmillan. (hardcover). (eBook).
External links
- Donizetti Society (London) website
- Libretto (Italian)
- Plot summary