DONIZETTI: “ANNA BOLENA.” Joan Sutherland, Susanne Mentzer,...

DONIZETTI: “ANNA BOLENA.” Joan Sutherland, Susanne Mentzer, Jerry Hadley, Samuel Ramey; Chorus and Orchestra of Welsh National Opera conducted by Richard Bonynge. London 421-096-2 (three compact discs). Sutherland is a fit tragic heroine for Donizetti’s inventive dip into bel-canto Elizabethiana. The Australian soprano still commands an authority that few of her contemporaries can match--the extended finale before the beheading is still worth waiting for--but the occasional underpitch note and unraveled phrase suggests this project should have been done a decade ago. Sutherland’s unfailingly youthful colleagues underline her current vocal estate. American mezzo Mentzer brings fresh tone and a persistent vibrato to Jane Seymour. Hadley proclaims Percy’s ardent sentiments with cultivated tenorial fervor. Ramey is an orotund and sympathetic Henry VIII. Bonynge accommodates them all, without imposing much personality on the project.