2-799-110 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Scene from "Anna Bolena", at Her Majesty's Theatre, 1844. Opera by Donizetti, performed in London by Giulia Grisi, Luigi Lablache and Luciano Mariani: 'No man can better express the tender abandonments of the soul to love, hope, or joy, than Moriani, while, on the other hand, frenzy and despair he can depict with equal truth, but with more thrilling energy...perhaps he was a little enfeebled in voice from previous over-exertion, but his energetic action was still unfailing, which, joined to Lablache's hauteur and Grisi's earnest indignation, formed a tableau of dramatic beauty...The costumes of this scene cannot be too highly extolled for their splendour and accuracy - that of Lablache particularly made him stand forth as "bluff Harry" [King Henry VIII] himself'. From "Illustrated London News", 1844, Vol V.