Maria Callas - arguably the best singing actress of her time. Since then it has been a cherished role of the great bel canto sopranos. Donizetti had been churning out a lot of operas, and this was his frst great international success, moving him out of the shadow of Rossini.

The opera was based on some plays about the turbulent life and times of Henry VIII. Here's the background: At age 18, Henry succeeded his father and became King of England, and at the same time inherited his frst wife, Catherine of Aragon, his brother's widow.

Twenty-four years later he was looking for some new sexual interests. As the Supreme Head of the Church of England that was not diffcult. He had enlisted Mary Boleyn, Anne's sister, as one of his favorite mistresses, which is how he came to notice the younger sister, Anne.

Even though Anne had six fngers on one hand (see above accurate illustration) and was described by some as "not pretty," she caught the attention of the King. However, she rejected his sexual advances, and told him there would be no trial runs (she was lying, faking it), and if he wanted her, it would be only as queen. Henry could not contain his passion, and, even though he rarely wrote anything in his own hand, there are 17 love letters from Henry to Anne Boleyn preserved in the Vatican Library. By this time Henry had learned to buy his way into whatever he wanted.

So, while still married to Catherine, he married Anne, who, less than 9 months later bore her frst child (Elizabeth I). The Archbishop of Canterbury conveniently declared void the marriage to Catherine by simply stating that they were never really married. He also declared that the marriage to Anne Boleyn was lawful. So, it all worked out very nicely.

Unfortunately, three pregnancies did not produce a son, so Henry began to look elsewhere. Three years after his marriage to Anne he was smitten with Jane Seymour. That year, 1536, was a good year for Henry VIII. Catherine of Aragon died, Henry fabricated a charge of adultery against Anne Boleyn and chopped off her head, and he married Jane Seymour. That is easy enough if you are the Supreme Head of the Church of England, and happen to be King.

So, where does our opera ft into that mess? It covers only a few months of those events. Our opera begins with Anne noticing that the King is no longer very interested in her, and ends with Anne in the Tower of London going mad. She hears the wedding celebration for Jane and Henry, and she slips into a long and emotionally varied reverie. She recalls her youth, when she loved Percy, and the music becomes nostalgic. When she hears the wedding celebration, it seems to knock some sense into her, and she becomes aware of what will soon happen to her "little neck."

The end of her mad scene and the end of the opera is a spectacular cabaletta (a type of aria with a hard driving rhythm that sounds something like galloping horses). This scene is the reason that experienced bel canto sopranos love this role. To make this work, it requires someone at the peak of her career, and LaTrebko can do it.

Reality Check

Available bachelor looking for chicks who want boy babies History says that Anne Boleyn did not go mad before being executed in the Tower of London. Actually, she was quite cool, and the fact that Donizetti makes her go mad is only an operatic convention. Her last words were carefully recorded. Here is the offcial version:

"Good Christian people, I am come hither to die, for according to the law, and by the law I am judged to die, and therefore I will speak nothing against it. I am come hither to accuse no man, nor to speak anything of that, whereof I am accused and condemned to die, but I pray God save the king and send him long to reign over you, for a gentler nor a more merciful prince was there never: and to me he was ever a good, a gentle and sovereign lord. And if any person will meddle of my cause, I require them to judge the best. And thus I take my leave of the world and of you all, and I heartily desire you all to pray for me. O Lord have mercy on me, to God I commend my soul."

That's not the speech of a madwoman. Obviously, she was a bit delusional in referring to Henry as "…a gentler nor a more merciful prince was there never." Maybe she was hoping the quality of the speech would get her a reprieve. She then removed her headdress, and began repeating a brief prayer, as her attendants secured a blindfold.

She bowed her head, and the executioner cut it off with one clean blow.

That's the offcial version. Another possibility is that she went down spitting and screaming and cursing the bloody misogynist responsible for her death. He was, after all, the person who wrote history to accommodate that category of reality later described as things that ought to be true, even if they are not.

Donizetti's British Cycle

In 1830, Anna Bolena became Donizetti's breakthrough opera. Though he had already composed over two dozen operas, this one made his name, separating him from hack rivals. In the next 13 years he would write over forty more, several now opera house staples: Lucia, La Favorite, Elixir, and Don Pasquale. But his "British Cycle"-- the frst focusing on Henry VIII's second marriage, the next two on Elizabeth I's checkered reign - had to be rediscovered by modern audiences. This came with Callas in the 1950s, Montserrat Caballé in the 60s, and Beverly Sills a decade later.

As we will see today, the trilogy begins with Anne Boleyn's tragic demise. Her rise to fame, at the expense of Henry's frst queen, Catherine of Aragon, was short lived, only long enough to bring forth Elizabeth, who would be crowned 25 years later.

Failing to produce a male heir, Anne was quickly replaced by Jane Seymour, who did produce the future Edward VI, but poor Jane died in childbirth.

(For the record, Catherine, who was Henry's wife for almost 20 years, produced four male heirs, but all died in infancy.)

The full story of Henry's next three wives need not trouble us any more than they did Henry, other than to say the politically motivated marriage to hapless Anne of Cleves was short lived, as was Catherine Howard's, who also paid with her head; the last, Catherine Parr, outlived Henry, which was no easy task.

Maria Stuarda (1834), the second installment of the "British Cycle," dramatizes Elizabeth I's disposal of Mary, deposed Queen of Scotland.

Historically, Elizabeth protected her for almost 20 years before Mary became part of a plot to usurp the crown and return England to the Catholic fold.

In the debate over executing Mary, ever-crafty Elizabeth managed to be on both sides, fnally agreeing – "with a white conscience" – to the beheading. (Readers will remember that Mary's execution led Philip II of Spain to launch his ill- fated Armada the following year, in 1588.)

The plot for Maria Stuarda, however, is short on Catholic conspiracy and long on rival love, the triangle composed of Elizabeth, Mary, and the Earl of Leicester. In the end, Mary is sacrifced on the altar of jealousy, not politics.

Whatever ambitions Mary had are little in evidence; rather, it's in a jealous rage that Elizabeth condemns her to death, bringing us a glorious scene of Mary's calm sacrifce.

Robert Devereux (1837), the fnal installment of the "Cycle," is yet another dramatization of Elizabeth enraged over unrequited love, this time sacrifcing Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex.

Though the libretto confates the turbulent end to Essex's dashing career and failed Irish command, his execution for treason is intact; but here too the love triangle between Elizabeth (who would have been 68 at the time), Sarah (Duchess of Nottingham), and Essex repeats the contours of Maria Stuarda.

Despite everyone's good efforts, including Sarah's duped husband, Elizabeth sends Essex to the ax, his usurpation submerged in the love triangle.

So this is Donizetti's operatic version of the English Tudors, rejecters of the True Faith. That they were also cruel and unjust is best put by the Chorus at the end of Act I of Anna Bolena, if we include Elizabeth with Henry in the condemnation:

Ah! how much evil has been inficted by the English throne, how much evil, no one more fatal has ascended to it than he who explodes in rage.

Here innocence receives the death that crime contrives.
-Gil Davis