“Just over a year after ‘the three queens’ concerts, in which I presented the project with the finales from the Tudor trilogy, I’m back at the Teatro di San Carlo to conduct Donizetti again. This time it’s Anna Bolena, in the production by Jetske Mijnssen, co-produced by the Naples opera house, the Dutch National Opera and the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía. We’ll be on stage on 8/11/14/17 June, and the first performance is dedicated to the Maria Callas centenary celebrations.
Anna Bolena was Donizetti’s first great triumph and not only that: it was also his first real work as a composer of tragedies after a series of compositions almost exclusively devoted to the comic genre.
The score’s elevated, elegant style is a great challenge for performers. In Anna Bolena, Donizetti draws out the scenes in length, with complex, elaborate forms culminating, thanks to Romani’s admirable libretto, in true romantic catharsis. The grand final scene highlights how Donizetti, elaborating its structures starting from conventional ones, finds the most profound expression which had eluded him on his previous attempts.”