Saint-Saëns wrote an even dozen operas. It's obvious why Samson et Dalila should be the best-known--evil sex witch, duh--but it is significantly less obvious why his other eleven should basically be completely unknown. Dude was a solid composer. Apparently this one was actually quite popular during his lifetime, but today...not so much.
He appears to be trodding on Donizetti's territory here. Do so at your own risk, my man! It's early in Henry's wifecycle. He's pursuing Anne Boleyn, but she keeps putting him off until finally she agrees to marry him if he gets rid of Catherine. He tries to get it annulled by the Catholic Church, and when they refuse, he decides he's going to start his OWN church! With blackjack and hookers! Kind of funny how the whole dang country changed its religion just because of this one horny king. Though I'm sure not uncommon in history. So anyway, Catherine is banished and forgotten by everything (which I believe is at odds with actual history, where she remained popular with the people after her unqueenment). Anne's problem is that she's not having any sons. And her OTHER problem is that there are love letter at large that she had sent to her former beau, the Spanish ambassador Don Gomez (this dude is totally made up, right? I know she DID have a fiancé before Henry, but definitely not this guy), and the king will be totes pissed off if he finds out. He says he's burned them, fortunately, but for reasons that are extremely unclear to me, Catherine has an incriminating letter of some kind. She goes and begs the ex-queen for mercy; when Henry shows up, she has an internal debate about what to do, but finally she nobly burns the letter and expires. Henry's like, okay, but if I find out someone's making a fool of me, THE AXE WILL COME DOWN. An ominous finis.
(How about "wifecycle?" Did you like that? I thought it was pretty clever.)
Kind of an unusual way for an opera to end. Usually if something's going to happen, it happens. It's not just suggested that it will happen. Obviously, there are plenty of historical liberties, and that's fine, but it does seem a little goofy to suggest that Anne's ultimate death might have been due to something she actually did, as opposed to Henry just looking for an excuse to get rid of her.
Anyway, though, it's pretty great. The music...is swell, as you'd anticipate. People talk about it blending in Renaissance elements, which...sort of. There' a long (and great) ballet sequence at the end of the second act, but mostly it just sounds like regular ol' Saint-Saëns, which, again--not complaining. Perhaps it's not performed much because there's a certain distance from the characters; there's not anyone to identify with much. But I think musically, it definitely holds up. Here is a great Aria from Anne, "Reine! je serai reine!"
Really good production, also, from 1991. In the title role, Philipppe Rouillon looks like a portrait of Henry VIII given flesh. Seriously, the resemblance is eerie. Top honors, though, probably go to Michèle Command and Lucile Vignon as the two queens.
I watched this because it was Saint-Saëns' birthday. I'd had the DVD lying around for a while, but for whatever reason never got around to it until now. And, I'm glad I did. That is all.
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