Vienna State Opera House: Anna Bolena

Gaetano Donizetti was one of the dominant figures of the operatic world in the second quarter of the nineteenth century. He wrote at astonishing speed, composing some seventy operas in his lifetime. Anna Bolena premiered to great acclaim in Milan in 1830, the year which also saw the retirement of Rossini. With the death of his compatriot, Bellini, only five years later, it fell to Donizetti to pick up the mantle of leading the ‘bel canto’ style of which all three were major exponents.