Trieste, for the “Schmidl Mondays” at the C. Schmidl civic theater museum in Palazzo Gopcevich “Anna Bolena” by Gaetano Donizetti

Trieste, for the “Schmidl Mondays” at the C. Schmidl civic theater museum in Palazzo Gopcevich “Anna Bolena” by Gaetano Donizetti

Monday 15 January 2024 at 17.30 pm is dedicated to «Anne Boleyn» by Geatano Donizetti, the fourth appointment with "Out of scene", the series of guides to listening to the operas on stage at the Teatro Verdi in Trieste as part of the program of «Schmidl Monday», the review of in-depth studies curated by Stefano Bianchi that the Civic Theater Museum “Carlo Schmidl” for over fifteen years it has been offering its collections to the public of music and theater lovers. The initiative takes place in the name of the consolidated collaboration between the Civic Theater Museum “Carlo Schmidl”, the Triestina Friends of Opera Association “Giulio Viozzi” and the Teatro Lirico Foundation “Giuseppe Verdi”.

The opera, in the historic production signed by Graham Vick and revived by Stefano Trespidi for a co-production between the Fondazione Arena di Verona and the Fondazione Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi of Trieste, will be on stage from 19 to 28 January at the “Verdi” of Trieste. On the podium the Concertmaster and Director Francesco Ivan Ciampa, choirmaster Paolo Longo.

At the “Schmidl” they will be Maestro Fabrizio Capitanio (musician and musicologist, conservator of the Music Funds of the Municipality of Bergamo and manager of the 'Gaetano Donizetti' Music Library) and the writer Elisabetta D'Erme to tell the work of the Lombard composer, also making use of musical examples and videos.

«Anne Boleyn» it has long been described as Donizetti's first masterpiece. Today we know that the composer from Bergamo had already experimented with modern, original and effective solutions well before Bolena and that passages and whole numbers from previous and less fortunate works had converged in it. The result is an overwhelming vortex of passions and emotions. Opera tragedy in two acts, «Anna Bolena» it was set to music by Gaetano Donizetti between November and December 1830, with a libretto by Felice Romani, taken from various sources, and was performed with extraordinary success for the first time in Milano, at the Carcano Theatre, on 26 December 1830.

The premiere in Trieste takes place at the Teatro Grande (the current Teatro Verdi) on 12 November 1833, preceded by a preview of the first act only on the evening of 17 March 1832, on the occasion of the much applauded 'benefit' of the Duprez spouses: the tenor Luigi (Gilbert-Louis) and the soprano Alexandrina (Alexandrine Duperron). In the immediately following years, three further productions followed: in the Carnival and Lent Season 1834-35 (first performance 7 February 1835), in the Carnival and Lent Season 1838-39 (first performance 26 December 1838) and in the Autumn Season 1842 (first performance 22 November 1842). For the next staging we will have to wait for the 2011-12 season (first performance 17 January 2011).

«Anna Bolena» is the opera that launched Gaetano Donizetti's career and which – together with «Maria Stuarda» (1834) and «Roberto Devereux» (1837) – forms the so-called “trilogy of the queens”. It tells the events that led to the tragic death of Henry VIII's second wife, accused of treason and beheaded on 19 May 1536. Henry VIII is in fact in love with Joan Seymour and is looking for a pretext to get rid of his wife, who among other things has failed to give him a male heir. However, he gave him his daughter Elizabeth, the future queen of England. Lord Rochefort convinces Anna, his sister, to meet Richard Percy, his first love. The King knows of their affection and takes advantage of it to accuse Anna of treason, execute her and marry Giovanna. He is involved in the affair also the page Smeton, secretly in love with Anna. Joan, tormented by guilt, nevertheless becomes queen, while Anne Boleyn is overwhelmed by grief, loses her mind and is sentenced to death together with Smeton, Rochefort and Percy, accused of being her accomplices. Full of pages of pure bel canto, «Anna Bolena» is counterpointed by three concerted pieces of the highest quality: two in the first act (quintet and sextet) and one in the second act (terzet); not to mention the extraordinary construction of the complex final scene of the queen's madness.

Free entry until exhaustion of available places.

Reservation is recommended (indicating name, surname and telephone number) at the email address info@amiciliricaviozzi.it