ANNA BOLENA
Gaetano Donizetti (1797 - 1848)
Opera in two acts in Italian
Libretto: Felice Romani
Premièr at Teatro Carcano, Milan – 20 December 1830
Premièr at Teatro Carcano, Milan – 20 December 1830
11†, 13†, 16, 20, 22, 26, 29 June - 03, 05, 09, 11, 14* July 1965
Glyndebourne Opera House
GLYNDEBOURNE OPERA FESTIVAL
The London Philharmonic Orchestra
The Glyndebourne Opera Festival Chorus
Conductor: Gianandrea Gavazzeni
Myer Fredman (09, 11, 14.07)
Chorus master: Myer FredmanStage director: Franco Enriquez
Scene and costumes: Lorenzo GhigliaLighting designer: Francis Reid
Enrico VIII King
of England CARLO CAVA bass
Anna Bolena his second wife
LEYLA GENCER soprano GWENYTH ANNEAR soprano (*14.07)
Giovanna Seymour her lady-in-waiting PATRICIA
JOHNSON mezzo-soprano
Lord Rochefort Anne Boleyn’s brother DON GARRAD bass
Lord Riccardo Percy JUAN ONCINA baritone
Smeaton the Queen’s page MAUREEN MORELLE mezzo-soprano
Hervey Official at the Court LLOYD STRAUSS SMITH tenor
Time: 1536
Place: London
† Recording date
I want to record our deep sorrow at the deaths last
year of Lord Wilmot and Arthur Gilbey, both of whom had been founder members of
the Arts Trust and Festival Society, and both of whom had worked with great
energy, dedication and valuable results for the aims and ideals of
Glyndebourne. Their loss is felt profoundly by all of us working at
Glyndeboure, not only in their official capacities as Trustees and members of
the Festival Society Committee, but also as close personal friends of many of
us here.
Despite their loss, the Trust still remains strong. It has, however, been additionally reinforced by the appointment of a farther three Trustees namely, Sir Edward Boyle, Mr. Patrick Gibson and Mr. Christopher Amander, cach of whom, as long-standing supporters of Glyndebourne, will, I am sure, be of considerable value to the Trust. Similarly, the Festival Society Committee has acquired further members in the persons of Mr. Robert Carr, Mrs. Hans Juda, Mr. Jonathan Sieff and Mr. Humphrey Tomalin, all of whom, we anticipate, will add substantially to the present strength of our position, at a time when the question of our finances becomes increasingly distracting,
The cost of opera production rises alarmingly. Last year we incurred a disturbing deficit, mainly attributable to the large increase in costs generally.
We are at present seeking to introduce a number of measures whereby we can hold expenditure down without in any way affecting artistic standards. One of these measures is the transfer of our administration from London to Glyndebourne during the winter months. It is hoped that this transfer will keep our running costs down and at the same time- because of the vastly improved and newly constructed office accommodation assist our efficiency considerably. during the season. However, let it be stressed that these measures in no way diminish expenditure on anything directly concerning artistic standards. If these standards are to be maintained and developed, expenditure must, in our judgement, inevitably rise.
Without wishing to pat ourselves on our corporate back, but purely as a statement of fact, I think it fair to point out that over the years we can claim to have found and produced a good many singers who have, through their experience at Glyndebourne, expedited the development of their careers to the point of being internationally sought after. In consequence, we find that, whilst helping to develop their individual talent, we are at the same time ironically assisting them to increase their price, and in some cases assisting them to put themselves beyond our financial reach. Whilst in this way we seem to some extent, and unintentionally, to cause an increase in the cost of soloists, we cannot on the whole blame ourselves for other rising costs which are governed mainly by inflation and are beyond our control.
I know that lamenting the increase of costs occupies most of us tirelessly and tiresomely, but I feel it important to correct the impression held by some that Glyndebourne arrogantly spurns State support and is therefore considered as being able to boast a position of affluence. Such an impression is far from the truth. We have so far been able to manage without State subsidy, because we have attached a high value to our independence and have been able to make ends meet. But without State subsidy we require all the more the help of our supporters. The results of the Appeal which the Arts Trust launched last year show that some readily recognised this and we are indeed grateful to all who generously responded to the Appeal. However, so long as we continue to give performances of really high standard, we must need and expect continued support.
As an extension of our activities, we are planning a series of television performances in the autumn of this year. The series will involve the production of three one-act operas specifically for televising by BBC-2 and will consist of new productions of Purcell's Dido and Armas, and Ravel's L'heure espagnole, and a revival of Busoni's Arleebies which is already in our repertoire. Every year since 1951 we have, in collaboration with BBC-1 televised one of the full-length operas included in each season. This we hope to continue to do. How- ever, it is as an extension of this that we plan to televise the 'one-acters' during our out-of-season period in the hope of making ourselves accessible to an increasingly wide audience.
In connection with our brief departure last year into the field of spoken drama, we promoted as a contribution to the Shakespeare quatercentenary the Compagnia dei Quattro's week of performances of The Taming of the Shrew in Italian. To see Shakespeare's Italian comedy given with the sparkling energy and vitality it received at the hands of the Compagnia was a particularly worthwhile tribute to the quatercentenary and this was confirmed by the unreserved acclaim of the critics both here and in Italy, and by the extremely enthusiastic reception from the public. Even though attendances were disappointing, particularly at the first four performances, Glyndebourne was virtually not involved in any financial loss to itself.
As a further extension of our activities the Worshipful Company of Musicians is making it possible for us to award in collaboration with them an annual scholarship to enable a young and promising British singer, musician or producer who is part of the Glyndebourne company, to study abroad. The scholarship will be known as the John Christie Award' in honour of my father and his achievement at Glyndebourne. It seems to me that we are in a particularly apt position to make this award since we are closely and widely in touch with the development of young singers who make up our chorus and to a large extent our casts of understudies as well as performing most of the minor though highly important roles in our repertoire and have in our staff young musicians and producers of great promise. Needless to say, we are grateful for this opportunity of furthering the career of young artists.
Finally, and for the record, I think it appropriate in this Foreword to draw attention to two totally disconnected facts.
Firstly, this is the tenth year in which Mr. Vemon Herbert of the Norfolk Arms, Arundel, has undertaken the catering at Glyndebourne. Before these ten years, we had organized the catering ourselves or put it out. We had successfully proved up to that time that we were competent to administer the performance of opera but were not able to solve our catering problems. We therefore invited Mr. Herbert to take over this responsibility (or liability as we then considered it). and I can only congratulate him and his loyal staff on the growing success with which they have tackled ant extremely difficult job.
Secondly, our property manager, Harry Kellard, retired at the end of last season. He will be greatly missed. He has been excellent in his job and has frequently and with total success managed to translate the appearance of some material or other into something which one would have expected to be totally alien to it. At the same time, he has actively understood what Glyndebourne stands for and has been able to instil this into all those who worked with and under him.
Opera News - A Tale of Two Queens
... screen. Maria Callas, Leyla Gencer and Beverly Sills have sung her at La
Scala, Glyndebourne and New York City Opera. David McVicar's ...
Opera News - Metropolitan Opera Live in HD Broadcast: Anna Bolena
... Anna Bolena has since proved irresistible to a number of important sopranos, including
Montserrat Caballé, Leyla Gencer, Joan Sutherland and Beverly Sills ...
Opera News - Metropolitan Opera Broadcast: Anna Bolena
... half of the twentieth century, Anna Bolena proved irresistible to a number of important
sopranos, including Montserrat Caballé, Leyla Gencer, Joan Sutherland ...
Lord Rochefort Anne Boleyn’s brother DON GARRAD bass
Lord Riccardo Percy JUAN ONCINA baritone
Smeaton the Queen’s page MAUREEN MORELLE mezzo-soprano
Hervey Official at the Court LLOYD STRAUSS SMITH tenor
Time: 1536
Place: London
† Recording date
Photos © GUY GRAVETT, Sussex
Cover of programme booklet © LORENZO GHIGHLIA
FROM THE HOUSE PROGRAMME
FOREWARD
BY GEORGE CHRISTIE, Chairman Glyndebourne Productions Limited
 |
| George Christie Photo © Guy Gravett |
Despite their loss, the Trust still remains strong. It has, however, been additionally reinforced by the appointment of a farther three Trustees namely, Sir Edward Boyle, Mr. Patrick Gibson and Mr. Christopher Amander, cach of whom, as long-standing supporters of Glyndebourne, will, I am sure, be of considerable value to the Trust. Similarly, the Festival Society Committee has acquired further members in the persons of Mr. Robert Carr, Mrs. Hans Juda, Mr. Jonathan Sieff and Mr. Humphrey Tomalin, all of whom, we anticipate, will add substantially to the present strength of our position, at a time when the question of our finances becomes increasingly distracting,
The cost of opera production rises alarmingly. Last year we incurred a disturbing deficit, mainly attributable to the large increase in costs generally.
We are at present seeking to introduce a number of measures whereby we can hold expenditure down without in any way affecting artistic standards. One of these measures is the transfer of our administration from London to Glyndebourne during the winter months. It is hoped that this transfer will keep our running costs down and at the same time- because of the vastly improved and newly constructed office accommodation assist our efficiency considerably. during the season. However, let it be stressed that these measures in no way diminish expenditure on anything directly concerning artistic standards. If these standards are to be maintained and developed, expenditure must, in our judgement, inevitably rise.
Without wishing to pat ourselves on our corporate back, but purely as a statement of fact, I think it fair to point out that over the years we can claim to have found and produced a good many singers who have, through their experience at Glyndebourne, expedited the development of their careers to the point of being internationally sought after. In consequence, we find that, whilst helping to develop their individual talent, we are at the same time ironically assisting them to increase their price, and in some cases assisting them to put themselves beyond our financial reach. Whilst in this way we seem to some extent, and unintentionally, to cause an increase in the cost of soloists, we cannot on the whole blame ourselves for other rising costs which are governed mainly by inflation and are beyond our control.
I know that lamenting the increase of costs occupies most of us tirelessly and tiresomely, but I feel it important to correct the impression held by some that Glyndebourne arrogantly spurns State support and is therefore considered as being able to boast a position of affluence. Such an impression is far from the truth. We have so far been able to manage without State subsidy, because we have attached a high value to our independence and have been able to make ends meet. But without State subsidy we require all the more the help of our supporters. The results of the Appeal which the Arts Trust launched last year show that some readily recognised this and we are indeed grateful to all who generously responded to the Appeal. However, so long as we continue to give performances of really high standard, we must need and expect continued support.
As an extension of our activities, we are planning a series of television performances in the autumn of this year. The series will involve the production of three one-act operas specifically for televising by BBC-2 and will consist of new productions of Purcell's Dido and Armas, and Ravel's L'heure espagnole, and a revival of Busoni's Arleebies which is already in our repertoire. Every year since 1951 we have, in collaboration with BBC-1 televised one of the full-length operas included in each season. This we hope to continue to do. How- ever, it is as an extension of this that we plan to televise the 'one-acters' during our out-of-season period in the hope of making ourselves accessible to an increasingly wide audience.
In connection with our brief departure last year into the field of spoken drama, we promoted as a contribution to the Shakespeare quatercentenary the Compagnia dei Quattro's week of performances of The Taming of the Shrew in Italian. To see Shakespeare's Italian comedy given with the sparkling energy and vitality it received at the hands of the Compagnia was a particularly worthwhile tribute to the quatercentenary and this was confirmed by the unreserved acclaim of the critics both here and in Italy, and by the extremely enthusiastic reception from the public. Even though attendances were disappointing, particularly at the first four performances, Glyndebourne was virtually not involved in any financial loss to itself.
As a further extension of our activities the Worshipful Company of Musicians is making it possible for us to award in collaboration with them an annual scholarship to enable a young and promising British singer, musician or producer who is part of the Glyndebourne company, to study abroad. The scholarship will be known as the John Christie Award' in honour of my father and his achievement at Glyndebourne. It seems to me that we are in a particularly apt position to make this award since we are closely and widely in touch with the development of young singers who make up our chorus and to a large extent our casts of understudies as well as performing most of the minor though highly important roles in our repertoire and have in our staff young musicians and producers of great promise. Needless to say, we are grateful for this opportunity of furthering the career of young artists.
Finally, and for the record, I think it appropriate in this Foreword to draw attention to two totally disconnected facts.
Firstly, this is the tenth year in which Mr. Vemon Herbert of the Norfolk Arms, Arundel, has undertaken the catering at Glyndebourne. Before these ten years, we had organized the catering ourselves or put it out. We had successfully proved up to that time that we were competent to administer the performance of opera but were not able to solve our catering problems. We therefore invited Mr. Herbert to take over this responsibility (or liability as we then considered it). and I can only congratulate him and his loyal staff on the growing success with which they have tackled ant extremely difficult job.
Secondly, our property manager, Harry Kellard, retired at the end of last season. He will be greatly missed. He has been excellent in his job and has frequently and with total success managed to translate the appearance of some material or other into something which one would have expected to be totally alien to it. At the same time, he has actively understood what Glyndebourne stands for and has been able to instil this into all those who worked with and under him.
FROM THE HOUSE PROGRAMME
AS OTHERS SEE US
SPIKE HUGHES
There is always one moment of great surprise and
satisfaction in the life of most English opera lovers, and that is when they
suddenly discover for the first time, and often in middle life, that the Anna
Bolena of Donizetti's opera is none other than the unhappy Anne Boleyn they've
known about since their early schooldays. The discovery that 'Macdubbo' is
Verdi's form of Macduff is also pleasing, of course, but not quite so
startling, as we are unlikely to hear about him except in connection with
Macbeth, when we probably guess who he is. But Anna Bolena is first and
foremost the protagonist of an opera of the same name which we might well go
through life without ever hearing at all, and so never discover even what kind
of stage company she keeps that might help us identify her.
There are some who might say that even when we do see the opera with Anna Bolena in her proper context, we still wouldn't recognize her as Anne Boleyn; but that is due to an inbred English belief that all Italian operas on English subjects are either inaccurate if they are based on history, or ridiculous if they are based on fiction. Certainly, Italian operas inspired mainly by the English romantics have asked a great deal of our credulity in their time, though much of this is due to an unfortunate, but understandable, prejudice on our part against the inescapable anticlimax of titles like Emilia di Liverpool, Elisabetta in Derbyshire, Il Conte d'Essex and Il Birraio di Preston. Even the translation of English place names hardly makes things better; there is still something grotesque to us in Goldoni's transformation of Besis of Hampton into Bura di Antona for Tractta's opera.
Donizetti's Anna Bolena, which at least does not risk ridicule as the heroine's English names are translated into euphonious Italian equivalents, is by no means the travesty of English history that prejudice, or even experience, might lead us to expect. Felice Romani's libretto is not a documentary, and if it shows a Shakespearean disregard for the running order of history it does so in the dramatic interests of the tragedia lirica which, after all, was what Donizetti was aiming at.
The introduction, for instance, of a Lord Richard Percy into everybody's life in the opera has no basis in historical fact. Or so it seems, if we look for his name in the history books. In real life, however, a Lord Henry Algernon Percy, son of the Earl of Northumberland, was actually 'precontracted' to Anne Boleyn when he was about 20; she was 13 at the time and in the household of Henry VIII's Queen, Catherine of Aragon. The engagement was broken up by Cardinal Wolsey, the Earl of Northumberland and the King, all of whom had various political and dynastic reasons for wanting the young couple to marry two other people. (Henry's eye had not yet swung round in Anne Boleyn's direction, as he was busy with her older, married sister Mary at the time.)
In Donizetti's opera Lord Richard Percy is clearly the same person as Lord Henry Algernon Per inasmuch as in his younger days he was engaged to Anne Boleyn. The return of Lord Richard to the scene of the opera and Anne's last days, on the other hand, is entirely the librettist's idea, and so is Percy's attempt to save her by insisting that he is still precontracted to her and that consequently the King must restore her to him. This makes for a good dramatic scene in Act II, Scene 2 of Anna Bolena, of course, but it could not go more directly against historical fact. When Lord Henry Algernon Percy had succeeded as Earl of Northumberland he denied on oath before the Archbishops of Canterbury and York that any such precontract had ever existed, and he stuck to his story even though he knew that to admit it could have invalidated Henry's marriage to Anne and perhaps saved her life and incidentally bastardized the infant Elizabeth, who would consequently not have later become Queen. So far from being beheaded, as Percy is in the opera, Northumberland died in his bed a year after the execution of Anne Boleyn. The operatic Percy need not have been executed, for in a scene usually cut from the score he is told that he and Lord Rochford, the Queen's brother, have been pardoned by the King. They protest, however, that if Anna is to die, they must die with her, and they refuse to accept the pardon.
Richard Percy has a rough time of it altogether, I feel; he is dragged into the plot by the librettist entirely against his will and all historical evidence, and then has his head cut off for his trouble. He doesn't even get called by his proper name either, though I think this is easily explained. As Lord Henry Algernon Percy it would have been confusing to have had another Enrico in the opera, and there seems - not surprisingly - to be no Italian equivalent of Algernon. Felice Romani solved the problem by calling him Riccardo. Not that this matters very much really, as more often than not he is referred to and addressed as 'Percy"- but with the accent on the second syllable. The stressing of the English proper names in this manner is standard practice throughout Anna Bolena; in addition to Pair-ches' we have 'Sey-mour' and 'Her-rey'. 'Smeton', however, is stressed indiscriminately, sometimes in the English manner, sometimes all'italiana.
The correct accentuation of bisyllabic English names in Italian opera was not finally sorted out until Falstaff, when Verdi and Boito made no mistake about 'Windsor' and 'Falstaff'. But even in Falstaff Boito once had to revert to the old style. With 'Quand'ero paggio del Duca di Norfolk' he admitted it was a question either of being incorrect and saying 'Nor-folk', or being correct and spoiling the verse. Fortunately, he chose to be incorrect.
Whereas Percy must rate as a half-historical character in Anna Bolena, Rochford, Smeton and, of course, Giovanna Seymour, all have solid historical antecedents in that they were all involved in Anne's last days. Rochford certainly never had the opportunity to reject the King's clemency, but he was indicted and executed on just as little evidence as is offered in the opera. 'Smeton' was originally Mark Smeaton, a young Court musician who confessed under torture (inflicted on him by Thomas Cromwell) that he had been the Queen's lover. In Donizetti's opera he is turned into a contralto travesti with a secret passion for Anne a sort of unlucky Cherubino. (Opera being what is it, of course, the fact that Smeton's voice hasn't yet broken is not regarded as proof of immaturity or innocence any more than it is with Cherubino or Octavian.)
The character of Hervey in Anna Bolena seems to be entirely the librettist's invention; the part is written for a tenor and often sung by a deep bass, and if Hervey has no visible means of historical support at least he can be regarded as an ancestor of Spoletta in Tosca, who is always busy taking orders for executions and trailing suspects for Scarpia, in the same way that Hervey is always there for Henry VIII's instructions.
It is a mistake, I think, to presume that because early 19th-century Italian librettists have - to coin an understatement - sometimes tended to twist English history to help them in their work of providing the composer with dramatic and lyrical situations, they did not know the facts. Not only did they know the facts, but they expected their audiences to know them - or at any rate, to be well enough acquainted with the historical background of the plot of Anna Bolena, for instance, to recognize immediately that 'l'aragonese' mentioned a couple of thrown-away times in the text referred to Catherine of Aragon.
(How well up in other periods of English history the Italians are I do not know, but obviously they are taught a great deal about the Tudors. I learnt this on a train journey from Rome to Genoa when, discovering we were English, the father of a Sicilian peasant family even at a dress rehearsal before an invited audience.
There are some who might say that even when we do see the opera with Anna Bolena in her proper context, we still wouldn't recognize her as Anne Boleyn; but that is due to an inbred English belief that all Italian operas on English subjects are either inaccurate if they are based on history, or ridiculous if they are based on fiction. Certainly, Italian operas inspired mainly by the English romantics have asked a great deal of our credulity in their time, though much of this is due to an unfortunate, but understandable, prejudice on our part against the inescapable anticlimax of titles like Emilia di Liverpool, Elisabetta in Derbyshire, Il Conte d'Essex and Il Birraio di Preston. Even the translation of English place names hardly makes things better; there is still something grotesque to us in Goldoni's transformation of Besis of Hampton into Bura di Antona for Tractta's opera.
Donizetti's Anna Bolena, which at least does not risk ridicule as the heroine's English names are translated into euphonious Italian equivalents, is by no means the travesty of English history that prejudice, or even experience, might lead us to expect. Felice Romani's libretto is not a documentary, and if it shows a Shakespearean disregard for the running order of history it does so in the dramatic interests of the tragedia lirica which, after all, was what Donizetti was aiming at.
The introduction, for instance, of a Lord Richard Percy into everybody's life in the opera has no basis in historical fact. Or so it seems, if we look for his name in the history books. In real life, however, a Lord Henry Algernon Percy, son of the Earl of Northumberland, was actually 'precontracted' to Anne Boleyn when he was about 20; she was 13 at the time and in the household of Henry VIII's Queen, Catherine of Aragon. The engagement was broken up by Cardinal Wolsey, the Earl of Northumberland and the King, all of whom had various political and dynastic reasons for wanting the young couple to marry two other people. (Henry's eye had not yet swung round in Anne Boleyn's direction, as he was busy with her older, married sister Mary at the time.)
In Donizetti's opera Lord Richard Percy is clearly the same person as Lord Henry Algernon Per inasmuch as in his younger days he was engaged to Anne Boleyn. The return of Lord Richard to the scene of the opera and Anne's last days, on the other hand, is entirely the librettist's idea, and so is Percy's attempt to save her by insisting that he is still precontracted to her and that consequently the King must restore her to him. This makes for a good dramatic scene in Act II, Scene 2 of Anna Bolena, of course, but it could not go more directly against historical fact. When Lord Henry Algernon Percy had succeeded as Earl of Northumberland he denied on oath before the Archbishops of Canterbury and York that any such precontract had ever existed, and he stuck to his story even though he knew that to admit it could have invalidated Henry's marriage to Anne and perhaps saved her life and incidentally bastardized the infant Elizabeth, who would consequently not have later become Queen. So far from being beheaded, as Percy is in the opera, Northumberland died in his bed a year after the execution of Anne Boleyn. The operatic Percy need not have been executed, for in a scene usually cut from the score he is told that he and Lord Rochford, the Queen's brother, have been pardoned by the King. They protest, however, that if Anna is to die, they must die with her, and they refuse to accept the pardon.
Richard Percy has a rough time of it altogether, I feel; he is dragged into the plot by the librettist entirely against his will and all historical evidence, and then has his head cut off for his trouble. He doesn't even get called by his proper name either, though I think this is easily explained. As Lord Henry Algernon Percy it would have been confusing to have had another Enrico in the opera, and there seems - not surprisingly - to be no Italian equivalent of Algernon. Felice Romani solved the problem by calling him Riccardo. Not that this matters very much really, as more often than not he is referred to and addressed as 'Percy"- but with the accent on the second syllable. The stressing of the English proper names in this manner is standard practice throughout Anna Bolena; in addition to Pair-ches' we have 'Sey-mour' and 'Her-rey'. 'Smeton', however, is stressed indiscriminately, sometimes in the English manner, sometimes all'italiana.
The correct accentuation of bisyllabic English names in Italian opera was not finally sorted out until Falstaff, when Verdi and Boito made no mistake about 'Windsor' and 'Falstaff'. But even in Falstaff Boito once had to revert to the old style. With 'Quand'ero paggio del Duca di Norfolk' he admitted it was a question either of being incorrect and saying 'Nor-folk', or being correct and spoiling the verse. Fortunately, he chose to be incorrect.
Whereas Percy must rate as a half-historical character in Anna Bolena, Rochford, Smeton and, of course, Giovanna Seymour, all have solid historical antecedents in that they were all involved in Anne's last days. Rochford certainly never had the opportunity to reject the King's clemency, but he was indicted and executed on just as little evidence as is offered in the opera. 'Smeton' was originally Mark Smeaton, a young Court musician who confessed under torture (inflicted on him by Thomas Cromwell) that he had been the Queen's lover. In Donizetti's opera he is turned into a contralto travesti with a secret passion for Anne a sort of unlucky Cherubino. (Opera being what is it, of course, the fact that Smeton's voice hasn't yet broken is not regarded as proof of immaturity or innocence any more than it is with Cherubino or Octavian.)
The character of Hervey in Anna Bolena seems to be entirely the librettist's invention; the part is written for a tenor and often sung by a deep bass, and if Hervey has no visible means of historical support at least he can be regarded as an ancestor of Spoletta in Tosca, who is always busy taking orders for executions and trailing suspects for Scarpia, in the same way that Hervey is always there for Henry VIII's instructions.
It is a mistake, I think, to presume that because early 19th-century Italian librettists have - to coin an understatement - sometimes tended to twist English history to help them in their work of providing the composer with dramatic and lyrical situations, they did not know the facts. Not only did they know the facts, but they expected their audiences to know them - or at any rate, to be well enough acquainted with the historical background of the plot of Anna Bolena, for instance, to recognize immediately that 'l'aragonese' mentioned a couple of thrown-away times in the text referred to Catherine of Aragon.
(How well up in other periods of English history the Italians are I do not know, but obviously they are taught a great deal about the Tudors. I learnt this on a train journey from Rome to Genoa when, discovering we were English, the father of a Sicilian peasant family even at a dress rehearsal before an invited audience.
 |
| Arrival to London Leyla Gencer is welcomed at the airport by the young Turkish diplomat Ms. Betin Kuntol from Turkish Embassy |
 |
| with Sir George Christie, General Manager of Glyndbourne Opera Festival |
CONTRACT FOR THE PERFORMANCES
1964
OPERA MAGAZINE
1964 September (Autumn Issue)
OPERA MAGAZINE
1965 February
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
1965.02.04
YENİ DAILY NEWSPAPER
1965.05.24
UNKNOWN GERMAN NEWSPAPER
1965 June
SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
1965 June
JOHN WERRACK
Glyndebourne has
succeeded in reviving this opera and undoubtedly Leyla Gencer deserves the most
credit among all the artists.
THE OBSERVER
1965 June
PETER HEYPORT
After a rather shy
entrance, Leyla Gencer interpreted a long memorable character with her mastery
in her voice and acting skills.
MUSICAL TIMES
1965 June
MUSICAL TIMES
1965 June
OPERA MAGAZINE
1965 June
OPERA MAGAZINE
1965 June
OPERA MAGAZINE
1965 June
OPERA MAGAZINE
1965 June
THE TIMES
1965.06.11
THE DAILY TELEGRAM
1965.06.12
THE TIMES
1965.06.12
CORRIERE DELLA SERA
1965.06.13
THE BIRMINGHAM POST
1965.06.14
PUNCH [VOL.248]
1965.06.23
SOUTH WALES ARGUS
1965.06.25
OPERA MAGAZINE
1965 July
THEATRE WORLD [VOL.61]
1965 July
THE TIMES
1965.07.10
WESTERN DAILY PRESS
1965.07.10
OPERA MAGAZINE
1965 September (Autumn Issue)
KOBBE'S COMPLETE OPERA BOOK
1976
THE BELCANTO OPERAS BY CHARLES OSBORNE
1994
Anna Bolena
opera seria in
two acts
Principal characters:
Anna Bolena (soprano)
Giovanna Seymour (mezzo-soprano)
Smeton (mezzo-soprano)
Lord Riccardo
Percy (tenor)
Enrico VIII (bass)
Lord Rochefort (bass)
Hervey (tenor)
LIBRETTO by
Felice Romani
TIME: 1536
PLACE: Windsor
and London
FIRST PERFORMED
at the Teatro Carcano, Milan, 26 December 1830, with Giuditta Pasta (Anna
Bolena); Elisa Orlandi (Giovanna Seymour); Enrichetta Laroche (Smeton);
Giovanni Battista Rubini (Riccardo Percy); Filippo Galli (Enrico VIII)
A few days after the two September 1830 performances of Imelde de’ Lambertazzi, Donizetti and Virginia left Naples. They stayed with friends in Rome, and then Donizetti travelled on alone, his eventual destination, after visits to Bologna and to his parents in Bergamo, being Milan. His next opera was to be written for that city, not for La Scala but for the Teatro Carcano, where a season of opera was being mounted in competition with Italy's most prestigious theatre. Donizetti's librettist was the famous Felice Romani who, this time, did not behave in his usual dilatory manner but who produced his libretto for the new opera, Anna Bolena, quite swiftly, delivering it to the composer by 10 November. Donizetti went to stay with Giuditta Pasta, the famous soprano who was to perform the title-role, and it was in her villa at Blevi on Lake Como that he composed the opera, no doubt profiting from the advice or at least obediently adopting the suggestions of his prima donna. By 10 December he was back in Milan, and rehearsals began.
At its première on 26 December 1830, Anna Bolena had a
resounding success, though Donizetti himself was not impressed by the
performance. 'I did not write to you after the first evening," he informed
a friend on 3 January, because they could not have performed my poor opera
worse-which, even though it made some effect and the audience called me out on
stage, so infuriated me that I did not want to appear.' But to his wife he
wrote: "I am pleased to announce to you that the new opera by your beloved
and famous husband has had a reception that could not possibly be improved
upon. Success, triumph, delirium - it seemed that the public had gone mad.
Everyone says that they cannot remember ever having been present at such a
triumph."
During January Donizetti made some changes to the
opera to strengthen its first act, and these were duly incorporated into the
Milan performances. With Anna Bolena, his position was confirmed as one of the
three leading Italian composers, together with Rossini (whose Guillaume Tell,
which was to prove his last opera, had been staged the previous year) and
Bellini (whose tragically early death was to occur five years later). Anna
Bolena was soon being staged throughout Italy and, in due course, abroad. Its
first performance outside Italy was at His Majesty's Theatre in the Haymarket,
London, on 8 July 1831. In September of that year Anna Bolena became the first
Donizetti opera to be heard in Paris, and in November 1839 it reached the
United States when it was performed in New Orleans, in French. (The first New
York performance, in 1843, was also in French.) In Europe, between 1831 and
1830, it was staged in at least twenty-five cities from Brussels to St
Petersburg.
Anna Balena was still being performed in Italy as late
as 1881, when it was staged in Livorno, after which it suffered from the change
of taste brought about by the advent of verismo in opera. It resurfaced in
Barcelona in 1948 and in Bergamo in 1956. In 1957 it was produced at La Scala
with Maria Callas (Anna), Giulietta Simionato (Giovanna Seymour) and Nicola
Rossi-Lemeni (Enrico). The conductor was Gianandrea Gavazzeni. Since then,
other famous Annas have included Leyla Gencer, memorable at Glyndebourne in
1965, Beverly Sills with the New York City Opera in 1973 (in the final part of
a cycle of Donizetti's British history operas, in which she also sang Queen
Elizabeth in Roberto Devereux in 1971, and the title-role in Maria Stuarda in
1972), Renata Scotto (Dallas, 1975) and Joan Sutherland, who came late but
triumphantly to Anna Belena, making her first appearance as Anna in Toronto (in
May 1984), and singing the role also in San Francisco (1984), Chicago (1985),
Houston (1986) and superbly at Covent Garden in 1988.
LE PIU BELLE ARIE
1994.03.01
OPERA NEW
ANNA BOLENA
Links to OPERA
NEWS ARCHIVES related with Gencer’s performances
Opera News - A Tale of Two Queens
... screen. Maria Callas, Leyla Gencer and Beverly Sills have sung her at La
Scala, Glyndebourne and New York City Opera. David McVicar's ...
Opera News - Metropolitan Opera Live in HD Broadcast: Anna Bolena
... Anna Bolena has since proved irresistible to a number of important sopranos, including
Montserrat Caballé, Leyla Gencer, Joan Sutherland and Beverly Sills ...
Opera News - Metropolitan Opera Broadcast: Anna Bolena
... half of the twentieth century, Anna Bolena proved irresistible to a number of important
sopranos, including Montserrat Caballé, Leyla Gencer, Joan Sutherland ...
COMPLETE RECORDING
1965.06.11
Recording Excerpts [1965.06.11]
Come innocente Act I Scene I
Guidici ad Anna Act I Scene XVI
S'ei t'abborre.. io t'amo ancora Act I Scene XII
Sul suo capo aggravi un Dio Act II Scene III
Piangete voi Act III Scene VI
Al dolce guidami Act III Scene VI
Cielo: a' miei... Copia iniqua, l'estrema vendetta Act III Scene VI, VII Finale
FROM CD BOOKLET
THE TITLE CHARACTER
Following statement by Leyla Gencer about the interpretation of Anna Bolena are quoted from the book Leyla Gencer: Romanzo vero di un primadonna. CGS Edizioni Venezia 1986.
The title character of Anna Bolena never quite knows to whom she’s speaking. The doomed Queen is surrounded from the beginning by people who are wearing masks. Her trusted lady-in-waiting Giovanna, or Jane Seymour, is in love with the King and suffering torments of conscience about both her faithlessness and her ambition. The King himself is angling to replace his wife on the throne with Giovanna, just as he replaced Catherine of Aragon with Anna. Even Smeaton, the feckless and ornamental lute-player, is hiding his love from the world and is all too willing to submit to subterfuge and manipulation.Few singers have voiced the honest confusion of poor Anna more eloquently than did Leyla Gencer, whose portrayal of the role was captured on live recordings, most notably two under the baton of Gianandrea Gavazzeni — in Milan in 1958, and at Glyndebourne in 1965. Gencer’s Anna is no hapless emotional pinball, buffeted by forces beyond her control. She is a grounded, decent woman, once adept at the games she is now losing and painfully surprised to find herself so discomfited.
Vocally, Gencer in the 1950s and ’60s was capable of astonishing purity of line and clarity of tone, a pianissimo that was legendary in its focus and impact, and an agility and grace in her coloratura that flowed effortlessly and expressively from her sense of the character. The multifaceted quality of her voice made her an ideal Anna, always searching for a new term of address, a new entry into dialogue with the elusive and treacherous men and women who surround her. A light tremolando, a sudden decrescendo, a perfectly approached top note that from Callas or Sills would sound slightly manic but has, in Gencer’s hands, an otherworldly, almost instrumental evenness of tone; these vocal effects were her tools, and she put them to use to convey the most difficult of emotions — confusion.
Throughout the opera, everyone, except for Anna, is moving forward, while she alone is stuck in an untenable position. The King is moving to a new marriage, a new wife and, he desperately hopes, a new heir. The court is following him, with Giovanna both leading and dragging behind. Anna, who has risked everything on the alliances that made her Queen, has nowhere to go. It is striking that one of the simplest words in the libretto — “Sorgi” (Rise) — carries with it so much pathos in Gencer’s interpretation, distilling the contradictory sense of motion inherent in the whole piece. Anna says it three times to Giovanna and once to Smeaton. In her Act II scene with Giovanna, one of the greatest confrontations in the bel canto repertoire, “Sorgi” is deployed first almost casually and then, after Anna has learned that Giovanna is her rival, with a fermata and regal extension. Gencer’s first iteration is stronger than one might expect, with a slight bite to its harsh syllables, as if the singer is aware that this word is intimately connected to the moment when she will forgive Giovanna and, even later, when the presence of Smeaton will again unleash memories and emotional destabilization. It isn’t just a word. Gencer infuses it with the bitter irony of the entire drama — that as she falls, she bids others to rise, and as they rise, she will take their place, prostrate and helpless.
The tempo and the ferocity of Gencer’s final assertion of majesty, anger and forgiveness, “Coppia iniqua,” are breathtaking, clarifying the confusion of Anna, who emerges fully a queen — regal, commanding and wise. The many voices become one, the masks fall off, and Anna finally comprehends everything that was shifting or elusive in the poisonous world she is about to leave. Brought low, she soars, which is the essence of the opera and the core of Gencer’s personification.
We are these days a bit squeamish about mad scenes, with their “undoing of woman” and misogynistic spectacle. But Gencer, always alert to Donizetti’s underrated psychological nuance, is never fully mad. She projects a psychological vector exactly polar to the one the drama implies. Her Anna grows throughout the work, gathering a force and dignity that outweigh desperation, fear and humiliation. She learns to see people right, see through them and penetrate their guile and lies. And her madness never feels like the loss of power or rationality but rather a means of self-communion and deeper clarity.
.... For us twentieth century listeners Anna Bolena is also a starting point for a series of female portraits which Donizetti continues to explore. For Leyla Gencer, the leading, interpreter of the Donizetti Renaissance, Anna Bolena is her first portrayal of the trilogy of Donizetti’s English Queens. In fact, she is the first interpreter to approach these three portraits of Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda and Elisabeth in Roberto Devereux as a triptych, making them popular with her perfect interpretation. In reality the rediscovery of Anna Bolena was made by Maria Callas who was the center of the project guided by Gianandrea Gavazzeni as conductor and Luchino Visconti as stage director La Scala in 1957. But just at this decisive starting point for Donizetti Renaissance, Leyla Gencer’s Donizetti formation links up. Prepared by the same theatre in the role of the protagonist when the opera was repeated the following year with Maria Callas, Leyla Gencer was the protagonist of the edition of Anna Bolena recorded by Rai in Milan in the summer of 1958 with Gavazzeni as conductor and companion in part bound to the edition at La Scala, with the same cuts made by the conductor so that the opera would have a more clearly dramatic stress. Leyla Gencer’s Anna Bolena immediately had its own different interpretative vocal line. In 1958 Leyla Gencer is a belcantista by natural intuition, the virtuous canto leads her to vigorously recover the stylistic line of the early nineteenth century, the technical softness allows her to rediscover the expressive function of the ornamental part of the words; the psychological guides her. She examines the score and products an Anna Bolena of a prevalently lyrical, agile, light formulation: This very young queen, married to Henry VIII at the age of 16, ingenuous and oppressed, is a victim – according to Donizetti without doubt innocent – of the tortuous English court and the rigid education of the times. Gencer explains that she requires a virginal quality to her voice, melancholic from her entrance, foreseeing her destiny. She becomes aware of her own tragedy little by little, but even at the end – delirious in sweet madness – she searches for refuge in the memories of her adolescence. The 1958 recording (later to become a record Replica Fonit Cetra) is an example of belcanto by Leyla Gencer; at the same time it was greatly discussed because of immediate contrast with Callas’s performance while today it is considered modern and independent.
In the summer of 1965 Leyla Gencer and Gianandrea Gavazzeni returned together to Anna Bolena at the Glyndebourne Festival (11 June 1965). It is a more mature interpretation which echoes different conditions. Above all the places and the scenes. It is as if the use of the real historical places where the events too place had by some stroke recognized the operatic identity towards a deeper clash of emotions. The Glyndebourne Theater situated in the fields where roses, grazing cows and the Festival’s elegant public mix together with Anglo-Saxon ease, inspires a more concentrated teatricalism. The scene guides even the performers towards another conception. Lorenzo Ghiglia (scenographer and costume designer) and Franco Enriquez (director) are in line with the young and experimental taste of the Festival and the close proportions of the room. A play of dark interiors, foreshortened by photographic slots give prominence to the person; elegance recreated by costumes which nevertheless maintain a casual line of dress and do not immobilize the characters in portrait. Even the production eludes this looking glass perspective of the English historical romance; Enriquez searches for the drama of the characters with vivid curiosity; he discovers the “domestic” nobility; he finds it between the private and deceit of the court.
Leyla Gencer is different from 1958 edition. Years to work, choices and collaborations have given the singer in this phase, a more vigorous and denser vocality. We notice a new depth to the character, less virginal and prouder, with a provocative feminity and of lyrical emotion. The positions fix a state of mind but they are also moments of a vital and emotive energy in movement. The photographic sequence of madness scans an itinerary of psychological variations which almost cinematographic, from the melancholy tenderness remembered (the abandonment of arms, hands, hair and the recording of memories in a tearful glance) to the variety of colors and starts which discover a coherence in the incoherent passage of thoughts and images. We notice in certain places a lesser activity of belcanto and at the same time a different psychological search of the interior of the portrait, increases by the verification of the drama in these historical locations. Here the singer felt the emotion discovering that everything that Donizetti had miraculously known how to reconstruct was true: the clear immersion of the English countryside, the green plane trees, the quite stream, the rooms where “his Queen” lived and now where Holbein’s famous portraits evoke the characters.
This Anna Bolena at Glyndebourne is an example of the progression in the search and sculpturing of a character which is typical of Leyla Gencer. It is a testimony of emotive incandescence of the interpreter.
