She seems to be in mourning for her life. Donizetti and a chorus of shocked wedding guests rise to the occasion with a thrilling sound.įrom her very first entrance, Dessay establishes Lucia’s fragility and vulnerability. Edgardo arrives just she has signed the marriage contract and starts hurling the chairs around.
The wedding ceremony, which immediately precedes it, is exciting, too. Totally involved in the drama, Dessay’s performance delivers far more than dazzling coloratura. The role is a showcase for all great bel canto singers. The poor girl thinks she is marrying Edgardo. Still in her wedding dress, she wipes the dagger on her veil. She has murdered her husband on their wedding day. The most famous mad scene in opera remains Lucia’s. I suspect it was Ophelia who kickstarted the fashion.
Heroines going stark screaming mad in white linen had been commonplace on the stage for many centuries. There is an excellent performance, too, by Kwangchul Youn as the priest. Lucia is already in love and engaged to Edgardo (Joseph Calleja, excellent), whose father Enrico had killed and whose inheritance he had stolen. Enrico (Ludovic Tezier, excellent) is in serious trouble and only his sister Lucia (Natalie Dessay, excellent) can save the day by marrying and bringing the feud between two households to an end. The story has been updated from 1700 to 1850. Directed by Mary Zimmerman and conducted by Patrick Summer, the singers and the music grip you from the very start and never let you go. Many people think it is his finest opera and when you watch this performance, which was seen at The Met in 2011, you can see why.
More than 50 operas have been inspired by Sir Walter Scott and none more successfully than Gaetano Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, an adaption of the hugely popular novel Scott had published in 1819.ĭonizetti’s opera premièred in 1835 in Naples.
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