Virginia Zeani Anna Bolena "Piangete voi?"

Virginia Zeani sings part of the closing scene from Anna Bolena in a live concert performance in the studios of Italian Radio, RAI in Torino, Italy, with Orchestra Sinfonica de RAI, Direttore Fulvio Vernizzi, 10 November 1958.

Anna Bolena, is the English Queen Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII and mother of Queen Elizabeth Ist. On a most likely trumped up charge, she was accused by her husband of adultery and was executed in the Tower of London in 1536 at the age of 29.

The opera enjoyed a triumphant revival at La Scala Milan in 1957 with Maria Meneghini Callas in one of her greatest roles as Anna.

The tyrannical Enrico - Henry VIII - was portrayed to great effect by Zeani's husband, Nicola Rossi Lemeni. This doubtless led to Zeani undertaking this excerpt from the final scena in their joint Turin concert for RAI the following year, although she never performed the whole role on stage.

In the opera, Donizetti composed the scena as a highly dramatic mad scene. It is very different in style from the coloratura extravagances of Lucia. Anna's music moves between declamatory outbursts and gentle lyricism as her mind wanders from terror to joy. She imagines it again to be her wedding day and sadly pleads for just one more day of love.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Virginia
• Zeani
• Italian
• Opera
• Donizetti
• Anna
• Bolena
• Anne
• Bolyn
• Henry
• VIII
• Soprano

[pagerbear]

Is there a recording of Coppia iniqua?

Just imagine if she'd done this role on stage!

[CharlotteinWeimar]

@pagerbear Not to my knowledge. I think she only ever performed this one aria in concerts.

[MAPIAKALLAS]

she is great but nothing like the great divina maria callas... here zeani seens to have a small tinu voice for this dramatic coloratura thats my opinion for me Callas does a better job..

[CharlotteinWeimar]

@MAPIAKALLAS Anna Bolena was undoubtedly one of Callas's "miraculous" roles and not one which Zeani ever performed complete. But recordings are often misleading & seldom do justice to Zeani's unique timbre. I heard them both several times around 1958-62 in Covent Garden & can say unequivocally that Zeani's voice was bigger, fuller & technically far more secure.

[bogdankos]

simply whohohohohohoaw... stratosferica la zeani...

[enzogiordan]

Yes it is nicely sung without flaws but too fast to be believable (to the lyrics) and a bit bland (too evenly sung). I'm sorry but the great Zeani does not show her ability to show neither drama nor introspective qualities here.

[Rita0Moldao]

Faboulous!!!

[Homoclassicus]

The tempi are a little too rushed for me and she does seem to breathe in more passages than necessary, finishing some phrases with a bit more effort than would be ideal. That said, the uniqueness of her timbre, the undeniable presence of her singing and the even way with which the aria flows, both musically and dramatically, make me enjoy this performance a lot. That said, the comments below remind me how people say "incomparable" too easy with past singers and are too picky with current ones.

[basenjidiva]

Matchless vocality! Perfect passaggio with undetectable transitions. Perfect diction. Absolute control with agility, incomparable sensitivity, and incredibly expressive interpretive ability; the quintessential demonstration of Bel Canto!

Bravissima, La Zeani!

[1970heinz]

uhmmm... buona interpretazione ed emissione, ma con queste cadenze evita molte difficoltà, arrangia un po' troppo coi tempi svelti, e mi pare che l'aria sia addirittura abbassata di mezzo tono

[marywardify]

Wonderful! Beautiful singing, with a gorgeous voice full of grief and pain. The great Virginia Zeani deserves to be much more widely known. This is the finest interpretation of this aria I have heard, next to that of the incomparable Maria Callas.