ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the analysis of the mad scenes and discusses concepts of sorrow and despair, revenge and melancholia, wanderings and ravings. It discusses the literary qualities and sources, and assess the contribution to dramatic storytelling. The overloading of the emotional leads to dramatic scenes of self-expression, ambition, guilt, fear and trauma, in larger-than-life portraits of human behaviour trapped in neurosis and delusions. Scenes of delirium thus became popular. In June 1834 the Neapolitan librettist Salvatore Cammarano was responsible for the staging of Anna Bolena at the San Carlo Theatre, Naples.15 In addition to overseeing the entire production, he also wrote a few additional lines to the libretto. Cammarano, in his adaptation of the novel for Donizetti’s music, condenses the plot in such a way as to focus on a series of major transformations. Of particular significance is the abolition of the roles of Lord and Lady Stair (Ashton), the parents of the bride.
