In Gaetano Donizetti’s Anna Bolena, we witness the unraveling of a queen. Betrayed by her husband, discarded by the court that once revered her, and condemned by a system designed to silence her, Anne Boleyn’s fall is operatic in scale—and achingly human in impact.

After her execution, Henry VIII attempted to wipe her from history, destroying many of her books and letters, and nearly all contemporary portraits of her, save one. However, nearly 500 years after her death, and almost 200 years after Donizetti set her story to music, Anne’s voice still echoes. Why?