Lucia Di Lammermoor has always been one of my favourite Donizetti operas, L'Elisir D'Amore and Don Pasquale may have more of a fun factor but I love the moving and sometimes spookily psychological story and I cannot get enough of the Mad scene, which is quite rightly considered a colouratura showpiece. This production from San Francisco is very effective in many ways.
I did love Graham Vick's stage direction, one of his stronger operatic director productions actually. It successfully builds on the supernatural element of the opera with the best touches being when Lucia wanders directly from her garden assignation to Enrico's study without encountering a single door and when her garden almost magically descends into the castle in Act 3, perhaps symbolising being a product of Lucia's imagination. Everyone effectively weaves in and out within the blurred boundaries of inside and outside, realism and imagination and sanity and madness. The costumes are true to period, while the sets are spookily atmospheric. Storm-cloud-painted large flats move horizontally and vertically to reveal or conceal a weather-beaten background and the castle walls. The best set is the garden and the sparse use of furniture in the manor works well too.
The orchestral playing shows a weirdly ethereal yet appealingly Bel-Canto feel to the score. Jean-Yves Ossonce's conducting is gloomy yet apart from the occasional raging passages rarely dull. The chorus are spirited and clear vocally, especially in their climatic scene proceeding Lucia's last entrance. So musically, the production is outstanding.
Natalie Dessay is astonishing as Lucia. There is no one-dimensional characterisation in sight here, as a matter this is the most multifaceted performance I have seen from Dessay. This is more than a victimised waif that I have seen some Lucias do and much more different than her spectacularly fun performances of Olympia, Orphelie and Marie, but her opening aria shows both extravagant imagination and forewarning madness, she shows steel as she is bullied into marriage by her brother Enrico and her Mad scene is disturbing and touching. Her singing displays many emotions and colour, and is thrilling and radiant with little of the shrillness and desperate lunges that eluded her Met Lucia and Violetta. Her legato is seamless and as ever her colouratura brilliant, at times her singing is also hauntingly sweet, at other times girlish and in the Mad scene there is the horror, joy and a sense of eroticism also. Altogether it is just captivating.
The support cast acquit themselves very well, though none quite get to Dessay's level, which actually is a big ask. Giuseppe Filianoti's voice is very Italianate, and his performance is both fiery and passionate. He is at his best during Edgardo's best scene of the opera(to me) Tombe Degli Avi Miei, which is deeply moving. Where he isn't quite so good is in his death scene, the acting is on the cartoonish side- the only time during his performance that I felt this way- and I did think the use of the falsetto was ill-judged, then again this is a matter of taste.
Gabriele Viviani is a very restrained Enrico, especially when compared to the gleefully wicked Enrico of Sherrill Milnes on record, and perhaps a little too stolid at times, yet Enrico's ruthlessness and sympathy does come through but subtly with Viviani. The gestures are at least focused and feel personal instead of the stock and aimless ones I've seen other performers do. His singing is really excellent, it is of a very strong timbre perfect for example his incisive Act 1 aria yet has a certain elegance to it which is perfect for the duets between him and Dessay and in the Storm scene, also for the Bel-Canto rhythms that pepper the vocal writing.
Oren Gradus is very impressive as Raimondo, always engaging and very mellifluously sung. Cybele-Teresa Gouverneur's Alisa is fetching, vivid in her first scene even when what she has to sing is next to nothing, and I love the full, rich quality of her voice. Andrew Bidlack does what he can with the role of Arturo, which is admittedly not all that much. Overall, a very well done Lucia and especially well worth seeing for Dessay. 9/10 Bethany Cox
I did love Graham Vick's stage direction, one of his stronger operatic director productions actually. It successfully builds on the supernatural element of the opera with the best touches being when Lucia wanders directly from her garden assignation to Enrico's study without encountering a single door and when her garden almost magically descends into the castle in Act 3, perhaps symbolising being a product of Lucia's imagination. Everyone effectively weaves in and out within the blurred boundaries of inside and outside, realism and imagination and sanity and madness. The costumes are true to period, while the sets are spookily atmospheric. Storm-cloud-painted large flats move horizontally and vertically to reveal or conceal a weather-beaten background and the castle walls. The best set is the garden and the sparse use of furniture in the manor works well too.
The orchestral playing shows a weirdly ethereal yet appealingly Bel-Canto feel to the score. Jean-Yves Ossonce's conducting is gloomy yet apart from the occasional raging passages rarely dull. The chorus are spirited and clear vocally, especially in their climatic scene proceeding Lucia's last entrance. So musically, the production is outstanding.
Natalie Dessay is astonishing as Lucia. There is no one-dimensional characterisation in sight here, as a matter this is the most multifaceted performance I have seen from Dessay. This is more than a victimised waif that I have seen some Lucias do and much more different than her spectacularly fun performances of Olympia, Orphelie and Marie, but her opening aria shows both extravagant imagination and forewarning madness, she shows steel as she is bullied into marriage by her brother Enrico and her Mad scene is disturbing and touching. Her singing displays many emotions and colour, and is thrilling and radiant with little of the shrillness and desperate lunges that eluded her Met Lucia and Violetta. Her legato is seamless and as ever her colouratura brilliant, at times her singing is also hauntingly sweet, at other times girlish and in the Mad scene there is the horror, joy and a sense of eroticism also. Altogether it is just captivating.
The support cast acquit themselves very well, though none quite get to Dessay's level, which actually is a big ask. Giuseppe Filianoti's voice is very Italianate, and his performance is both fiery and passionate. He is at his best during Edgardo's best scene of the opera(to me) Tombe Degli Avi Miei, which is deeply moving. Where he isn't quite so good is in his death scene, the acting is on the cartoonish side- the only time during his performance that I felt this way- and I did think the use of the falsetto was ill-judged, then again this is a matter of taste.
Gabriele Viviani is a very restrained Enrico, especially when compared to the gleefully wicked Enrico of Sherrill Milnes on record, and perhaps a little too stolid at times, yet Enrico's ruthlessness and sympathy does come through but subtly with Viviani. The gestures are at least focused and feel personal instead of the stock and aimless ones I've seen other performers do. His singing is really excellent, it is of a very strong timbre perfect for example his incisive Act 1 aria yet has a certain elegance to it which is perfect for the duets between him and Dessay and in the Storm scene, also for the Bel-Canto rhythms that pepper the vocal writing.
Oren Gradus is very impressive as Raimondo, always engaging and very mellifluously sung. Cybele-Teresa Gouverneur's Alisa is fetching, vivid in her first scene even when what she has to sing is next to nothing, and I love the full, rich quality of her voice. Andrew Bidlack does what he can with the role of Arturo, which is admittedly not all that much. Overall, a very well done Lucia and especially well worth seeing for Dessay. 9/10 Bethany Cox
