Anna Bolena

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Fifty years after the legendary GNO production of Anna Bolena, featuring sets and costumes by the acclaimed Nicholas Georgiadis and stage direction by Dinos Yannopoulos, Donizetti’s masterpiece returns to the stage in a new production directed by Themelis Glynatsis, in which the new sets by Leslie Travers engage in a conversation with Nicholas Georgiadis’ historic costumes.

Anna Bolena was first performed to enormous success at the Carcano Theatre in Milan on 26 December 1830, featuring leading opera artists of the time. The libretto was penned by Felice Romani and was based on Alessandro Pepoli’s Anna Bolena and Ippolito Pindemonte’s Enrico VIII ossia Anna Bolena. The plot references the blood-stained years of the English Reformation and the tragic fate of Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s second wife, who was executed at the Tower of London in 1536.

Anna Bolena is one of Gaetano Donizetti’s most famous operas and marks his first international success, as immediately after its debut in Milan, it was presented across almost the entire world. It is a dramatic story filled with passion, political intrigue, and betrayal, which, in combination with its inspired musical and poetic language, fascinatingly unveils the characters in the work, especially Anna’s. Trapped between emotions and political interests, she transforms from a woman in love to a victim of fate. Part of the Tudor Trilogy (along with Maria Stuarda and Roberto Devereux), Anna Bolena was written in just a month. After its world premiere, it remained popular for nearly fifty years. Then, it was forgotten and re-entered the repertoire during the 1950s, primarily thanks to Callas’ performance at La Scala in Milan in 1957.

The production’s director, Themelis Glynatsis, notes: “In this new production of Donizetti’s Anna Bolena, the core of the dramaturgy and the entire aesthetic of the performance revolve around the conflicts of different versions of historicity: the romantic and historically inaccurate portrayal of Anne Boleyn’s final days by the composer, Nicholas Georgiadis’ costumes for the 1976 staging of the work at the GNO, and our own historical perception. Georgiadis’ costumes are brought back to life half a century later in a bold, new stage setting that illustrates the tense balance between historical authenticity and contemporary experience. The historical characters of 16th-century England, Georgiadis’ costumes, the history of the GNO itself, and our own historical reflexes become materials that will mould a contemporary and intense performative present in constant dialogue with the past. Set and costumes transform before the audience’s eyes, dramatizing the conflict between a captivating authenticity and a modern visual gesture that reveals the power and oppression mechanisms often hidden within this fascination. The new Bolena of the GNO not only focuses on the tragic relationships among the characters, but also explores their imprisonment by their very history, clothing, living spaces, as well as our fantasies about the past. Finally, it also aims to accompany them in their melancholic effort to live out an elusive experience of emotional truth and personal freedom; that is, to become contemporary.”

Making her debut in the challenging title role will be the emerging Greek soprano Maria Kosovitsa, who left a lasting impression as Liù in the Greek National Opera’s production of Turandot at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus in the summer of 2025.