Gaetano Donizetti The CoAnnnas Buollena
WHO? ACT I The Gist of the Story Composer: Courtiers sing of the queen’s setting star due to the King's burning love for another. The queen, Anne Boleyn, admits to Gaetano Donizetti Jane Seymour that she is troubled and asks her page Smeton to sing. He plays a song of lost love, causing an outburst Librettist: from Anne. After all have left except for Jane, Henry VIII enters to seduce her. He reveals he is preparing the altar for her: Felice Romani she will have husband, sceptre, and throne. The next morning, Lord Rochefort, Anne’s brother, is surprised to see Lord Richard Percy, who has been called back to England from exile by Henry VIII. Concerned for Anne, Percy asks Rochefort WHAT? if it is true that she is unhappy. Later that evening, Smeton sneaks in to Anne’s quarters to return a portrait he has stolen; tragedia lirica however, he hears sounds and hides. Anne enters with Percy, telling him the King now loathes her. Percy counters with a declaration of love, which Anne immediately refuses. He draws his sword to stab himself and Anne screams. Believing WHEN? Percy is attacking Anne, Smeton rushes out from behind the screen and challenges him to a fight. Henry enters, seeing December 26, 1830 unsheathed swords and finding the locket with Anne’s portrait in Smeton’s shirt. He orders all of them be dragged to the
ACTdung IIeons. WHERE? Hervey calls Anne's ladies-in-waiting to the Council of Peers. Once they depart, Jane enters, admitting to Anne that she is First performance to be her successor. Anne is angry at first, but tells Jane to leave with her forgiveness as Henry alone is the guilty one. Teatro Carcano, Milan When Anne and Percy are brought before the Council, Percy reveals that Henry had stolen Anne from him. He reveals
they were already married in the eyes of Heaven before Henry took her away. Jane implores Henry to spare Anne; However, the Council has ruled to dissolve his royal marriage and condemn Anne to death. In the dungeons, Hervey tells Percy and Rochefort that they have been pardoned by the King, but once they hear Anne is to be executed, they choose to share her fate. At the Tower of London Anne enters in a delirium. Smeton throws himself at Anne’s feet and apologizes for sealing her fate as he had believed he could save her. In her madness, she asks why he is not playing his lyre. The sound of a cannon is heard, prompting Anne to come to her senses. She declares that she does not invoke vengeance on the wicked couple so that she may find peace in Heaven. The guards lead all of the prisoners to the block.
Henry VIII and Anne's Boleyn's Relationship: A Historical Timeline CHARACTERS
1522 1533 May 19, 1536 Anne arrives at Elizabeth I Anne executed SIR HERVEY English Court born Court Official 1534 1536 1526 1533 Parliament declares Smeaton and other Henry VIII begins his Anne crowned Henry the head of the 'lovers' arrested courtship of Anne Queen Consort Church of England 1535 1531 Anne catches Henry HENRY VIII Queen Catherine and Jane Seymour King of England banished from Court together GIOVANNA SEYMOUR SMETON Phillip Gossett, Anna Bolena and Donizetti's Artistic Maturity (1985) Henry's mistress & Court musician Anne's lady in waiting It is agreed upon by musicologists that Anna Bolena marked a pivotal point in Donizetti's artistic maturity. It was with Anna Bolena that Donizetti embarked on his L is quest to forge his personal style, separate from the reigning "Rossi-nian" conventions T te ANNA BOLENA he ni r ng of the day. In his book, Phillip Gossett writes: ec T Queen of England it I a P: "...one of Donizetti's principal achievements in Anna Bolena lies precisely in his tiv es handling of...recitatives, with their frequent passages in arioso, their rich orchestral ! coloring, and their intensely dramatic confrontations. [These are among the cleanest pages in his handwritten score] demonstrating an extraordinary confidence of LORD ROCHEFORT RICCARDO PERCY approach, an ability to set dramatic dioalogue that helps account for Donizetti's Anne's brother Anne's former lover success as a composer of 'Romantic' opera subjects" (Gosset 1985: 23).
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