THE MUSIC: "Anna Bolena" is the second of Donizetti's four operas about English Tudor queens. It premiered in Milan in 1830. It's a large-scale work, and the leading soprano role is a grand one, written for Giuditta Pasta. In his book "The Assoluta Voice in Opera, 1797-1847," Geoffrey S. Riggs considers Anna to be the most difficult of the nine core or "defining" assoluta roles that he identifies. Per Riggs, these soprano assoluta roles embody these characteristics: "extremely intricate and fully heroic fioratura, widely varied tessitura, a range extending up to at least high B natural and down to at least low B natural with a least one semitone beyond that in either direction, and a frequently emotive and energetic orchestra accompanying a dynamic vocal line necessitating completely heroic vocal tone." He also posits that while many assoluta roles contain those elements woven throughout the score, "Anna Bolena" is one of the few instances where they are all concentrated in just one scene: the final sequence of her long mad scene. The vocal compass in this section (and the entire role) is from Low B-flat up to High C, though many coloratura sopranos will interpolate more high notes and end on a High E-flat. The challenges of the title role may be partially to blame for its near disappearance from the repertoire for decades until it was revived at La Scala in 1957 for Maria Callas. It has been performed much more frequently in recent decades as a vehicle to showcase star sopranos.
This recording is from a live concert recital Grubervova gave in Eastern Europe in 1997 -- but I don't have any more details than that. If anyone knows the specific source, please feel free to comment below. She sings the opening section "Piangete voi" and the main aria "Al dolce guidami," but then cuts right to two verses of the final "Coppia iniqua" cabaletta. There are many clips of Gruberova doing Anna's final scene on KZfaq -- she sang the role often throughout her career and it seems like nearly all of those performances were recorded by someone! -- but I did not find this particular one in the mix so I'm am posting it under the assumption that it is new content. Even though the world is not clamoring for another version of Edita's Anna Bolena, it may be one of the only items of hers that I have that is not already posted and I feel like because she was such and influential superstar that I should have Gruberova represented on my channel in a solo video (beyond her inclusion in some of my compilation videos)
THE SONGBIRD: Edita Gruberova (1946 - 2021) was born in Bratislava. She was a child soprano prodigy and made her operatic debut as Rosina in 1968 in her hometown. She auditioned in 1969 for the Vienna State Opera, which engaged her for the 1970 season and her star began to rise quickly in her signature roles of Queen of the Night and Zerbinetta. These roles in particular launched debuts at many of the top opera houses in the world in the 1970s. In the 1980s she began to expand her repertoire into Italian bel canto roles and continued to dominate international operatic stages and appear regularly in commercial recordings. In the 1990s, she started her own commercial record label (Nightingale Classics) and continued to add her heavier bel canto works to her repertoire and discography. Throughout the following decades she broke records for career longevity, such as singing Zerbinetta across a span of 36 years. Her final full operatic performance was in Munich in 2019 (51 years after her debut) and her full retirement from singing professionally was announced in September 2020, at the age of 73.