Anna Bolena, Opera by G. Donizetti
The famous two-act tragic opera, Anna Bolena, is staged at the acoustically superb auditorium of La Fenice Opera House in Venice. Written by Gaetano Donizetti as he was establishing himself as a great of operatic scoring, the libretto for the Tudor-inspired opera was supplied by Felice Romani, the Italian scholar and poet who collaborated with Donizetti before and after this work. Well-received on its debut, Anna Bolena premiered in Milan on 26 December 1830 at the city's Teatro Carcano.
Set during the reign of King Henry VIII in Tudor England, Anna Bolena tells the latter part of the life story of Anne Boleyn. The tragic opera begins when the relationship between Henry and Anne has already started to break down. The Queen has suffered from miscarriages which the King blames her for. Having annulled his previous marriage to Catherine of Aragon to wed Anne, Henry had been hopeful of begetting a male heir by his new bride. At the point where Donizetti picks up the story, the King is having an affair with his wife's chief lady-in-waiting, Jane Seymour. It is Seymour who is most conflicted of all the characters, split by her loyalties between her roles as the Queen's lady and the King's mistress.
Into this already heady mix, Seymour introduces a page called Mark Smeaton. It turns out that Smeaton has feelings for the Queen but has not acted on them. Meanwhile, the King asks one of his courtiers, Baron Hervey, to spy on Lord Percy, the Earl of Northumberland and Boleyn. Henry thinks the two, who had previously been betrothed to one another, may give him the grounds he wants to divorce from the Queen.
In the second act, events have taken a turn for the worse. The Queen is imprisoned in her apartments and, later, at the Tower of London. Donizetti's skill comes to the fore as Boleyn's noticeable distress rises, having been accused of being unfaithful. The King seems to be set on a course of action which could have fatal consequences for the woman he once loved. Donizetti's version of events focuses on the passionate emotions of the main characters, not least in the heights that soprano singers need to achieve to do his score justice. With an historical story that many theatregoers will already be aware of, this production of Anna Bolena teases out many of the human aspects of the tale, not least Anne Boleyn's seemingly undying loyalty toward Henry.