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He has been the musical soul of Heartbeat since its founding, adapting works by Puccini, Donizetti and more with a vision as creative as each production’s director.

Callas played Anne Boleyn, a doomed wife of Henry VIII, in a somewhat lesser-known Donizetti opera.

“I’m not turning down Adinas and Susannas left and right to choose this work, but I’m very, very happy that this work did choose me,” she said, referring to famous Mozart and Donizetti roles.

The conductor of “Lady Macbeth,” Keri-Lynn Wilson, was also making her debut, and showed mastery of Shostakovich’s score, which is in a savage, if often eerily beautiful, mode that would have stunned Donizetti.

Donizetti’s comedy is one of my favorite operas, but it can easily go awry.