Metropolitan Opera Preview: Anna Bolena

Sondra Radvanovsky puts her head on the block.
By Paul J. Pelkonen

Sondra Radvanovsky as Anne Boleyn in the Washington National Opera production of Anna Bolena. 
Photo by Scott Suchman for the Kennedy Center.

The big spectacular event of the 2015-2016 Metropolitan Opera schedule is not a Wagnerian extravaganza but a triptych of three operas by Gaetano Donizetti, informally referred to as the “three Queens." This year, soprano Sondra Radvanovsky looks to become the first diva to sing the leading roles in Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda and Roberto Devereux on the Met stage. First up is the revival of Anna Bolena, which opened the Met season in 2011.

Opera Review: Head of the Class

Anna Bolena at the Washington National Opera.

Royal rumble: Anna Bolena (Sondra Radvanovsky) confronts Jane Seymour (Sonia Ganassi) in
the Washington National Opera production of Anna Bolena. Photo by Scott Suchman for the Kennedy Center

The 2012-2013 opera season is still in its first month, but it's already had its first great diva turn: Sondra Radvanovsky's portrayal of Donizetti's Anna Bolena at the Washington National Opera.

These performances mark the American singer's first turn as Henry VIII's second queen in the bel canto gem, an opera that has rapidly come back into fashion thanks to the meaty title role and her dramatic confrontations with her double-dealing husband (played here by Oren Gradus) and Giovanna (Jane) Seymour (Sonia Ganassi) her lady-in-waiting turned successor.

First of all, Ms. Radvanovsky has the pipes to sing the demanding title role, gliding easily through the role's tessitura and finding a glittering edge to her voice that allowed her to surmount everyone else on stage in the Act I finale, the moment when Anna discovers she has lost her seat on the throne. This same strength and dominating presence is there in the big Act II duet with Ms. Ganassi, where Anne discovers that "her Seymour" is in fact taking her place.