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| Anna Netrebko debuts the opera at the Metropolitan Opera on September 26, 2011 (Photo: Ken Howard) |
"The adage 'Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned' gets an epic narrator next Monday night, when soprano Anna Netrebko, a true and beloved diva of the classical-music world, reprises her role as Anna Bolena....To master the accuracy of the sixteenth-century petticoats, gowns, double-sleeves, and men’s britches, Tiramani pieced together a 'jigsaw' of references, starting with portraits of the English Court by Hans Holbein the Younger, and moving on to tapestries, wills detailing the deceased’s most prized garments, as well as relics—including a perfect model of a shoe—from Henry VIII’s sunken flagship, the Mary Rose. 'We kept the character of Anna in more of the French style that she seemed to bring to the English court,' said Tiramani, in between acts at a rehearsal this week. 'There really is only one acknowledged portrait of her—in the National Portrait Gallery in London—and it shows her in a French hood, which is the shape we’ve used to separate her from the court.' The result of Tiramani’s careful eye are costumes that are both stunning and believable: a mix of specially made fabrics, black-dyed silk, and intricate hooks, as rarefied and authentic as Netrebko herself. As Gelb points out: 'She is a once-in-a-generation artist. She combines vocal technique and dramatic truth to a degree that is rarely seen or heard on any stage.'" [Source]
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| A scene from the David McVicar production of Anna Bolena (Photo: Thomas Prior) |
