- Todd Rosenberg
- Sondra Radvanovsky as Anna Bolena
The first act of Lyric Opera’s current production of Gaetano Donizetti’s Anna Bolena is visually stunning, vocally impressive, and dramatically compelling.
The original libretto by Felice Romani gave them a leg up on that (mad scene notwithstanding). Working with the better-than-fiction story of England’s infamous Henry VIII, Romani and Donizetti focused on a deadly triangle: the relationship between the king; his second wife, Anne Boleyn; and the lady-in-waiting who was to be his third wife, Jane Seymour. The two women—friends turned rivals—are complex, flesh-and-blood characters, acutely drawn.
The visuals are a knock out. Patel’s sleek sets make use of color and a few period elements to suggest an entire environment or dynamic: a coffered ceiling turns the bare stage into a palace, for example, and the royal throne, on a revolving pedestal, is backed by the royal bed. Dramatic use of color carries through in the steely, satiny blues and grays of Jessica Jahn’s beautiful period costumes, which struck me as perfect, except for one. Anne in the tower needed something more like sackcloth and tatters than the billowy white (night-?) gown she had. It might be historically correct, but it makes her look like Wendy, about to take off with Peter Pan.
