HENRI VIII • Bard SummerScape Opera 2023

HENRI VIII Camille Saint-Saëns Bard SummerScape Opera 2023 Libretto by Léonce Détroyat and Paul-Armand Silvestre Directed by Jean-Romain Vesperini American Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leon Botstein “Botstein, and his annual opera production at Bard, seem more invaluable by the year.”—New York Times “An excellent production by Jean-Romain Vesperini that presents the action lucidly and engrossingly.”—Financial Times Henri VIII is French grand opera at its most magnificent. In this love triangle for the ages, an infamous Tudor king is determined to divorce Catherine of Aragon in favor of the ambitious, beautiful Anne Boleyn. Saint-Saëns’s exquisite vocal passages and rich orchestration bring this rarely performed masterpiece to vivid life in this “grand and compelling” (New York Times) new production.