Anna Bolena

Anne Boleyn is uneasy at the King's coolness towards her, while Jane Seymour is equally disturbed by his warmth towards her.

Lord Percy returns to court, anxious about his former mistress, Anne Boleyn. Percy's return is part of the King's plot to entrap his wife, which he does when Percy is threatening to kill himself for love, observed by Smeaton, who also loves her.

In spite of the efforts of Jane Seymour and others, Anne is duly imprisoned, to be executed together with Percy and Rochefort.

Anna Bolena was the first of Donizetti's operas to win international acclaim and establish his reputation in Paris and London. It provides a fine vehicle for the soprano Anna Bolena, not least in her mad scene in prison, from which she is brought to her senses by the sound of cannons celebrating, prematurely, it would seem, the marriage of King Henry and Jane Seymour.

The opera features the fine duet "Sul suo capo aggravi un Dio" between Anna and Jane Seymour; while the best known of all excerpts must be the finale, "Piangete voi?" (Do you weep?).