Anne Boleyn by Donizetti, From (2024/2024), Directed by Anthony Pilavachi,, Conductor Felix Bender, Theater Ulm, Ulm, Germany

The English royals are always good for sensational stories - this was the case a few hundred years ago. Gaetano Donizetti created four operas for the opera stage, which interweave 'Sex and Crime' in the English royal family with the art of bel canto. The Ulm Theater will stage three of these ›Tudor operas‹ in the next three seasons and combine them aesthetically with a permanent team of directors. It starts with »Anna Bolena«, which premiered in Milan in 1830. King Henry VIII wants to get rid of his second wife Anne Boleyn (in Italian: Anna Bolena) after just three years of marriage. He has fallen in love with her lady-in-waiting, but she will only listen to him if he marries her. Another divorce looks suspicious, so Anne has to be convicted of infidelity. The young queen is helpless at the mercy of the courtly intrigues and inexorably drives towards the madness that sounds enchantingly beautiful and obligatory in Donizetti's work. Who needs to watch »The Crown« when you can go to the Ulm Theater and experience royal scandals live on stage?