Lucie de Lammermoor

As a huge fan of Lucia Di Lammermoor, I was all for seeking for productions of this opera. This 2002 production in French is excellent in my opinion. Anybody expecting the Lucia we are more familiar with and know and love will be warned.

Alicia is removed, and replaced by Gilbert, seemingly sympathetic but very treacherous too(I couldn't help but think of Otello's Iago at some point). There are several musical changes, especially the Mad scene which is a little more dramatically involving here.

Still this production is very engrossing. The costumes and sets fit the sombre, tragic tone of the opera perfectly, and I loved how the camera work and lighting focused on individual performers rather than elsewhere. The music is amazing, and conducted and played to perfection.

The performances are wonderful too. Roberto Alagna is an ideal Edgard, very ardent and vocally this is one of his more sensitive performances. Patrizia Ciofi is wholly believable as Lucie, particularly in the Mad scene. Ludovic Tezier is suitably unscrupulous and powerful as Henry too.

In support, Yves Salens really stands out as Gilbert, very good voice and he brings out his character's traits perfectly. Marc Laho is convincing enough as Arthur if a tad too light in voice, considering how heavy some of the drama is.

All in all, an operatic masterpiece performed very well. 9/10 Bethany Cox

This has been a Lucy Ashton year for me. I started by reading Walter Scott's "The Bride of Lammermoor" and then I saw the 2003 film of Lucia di Lammermoor, starring Stefania Bonfadelli. Then I went to La Scala Milan to see a live performance with Patrizia Ciofi in the title role. Finally, I saw this French version: Lucie de Lammermoor which is Donizetti's 1839 revision for Paris of the opera that he wrote four years earlier.

This version is directed for Opera Lyon by the prolific duo of Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser. I have seen quite a few of their productions and the common thread running through them is that they are cheap. It appears to me that any opera house that is strapped for cash and wants to put on a cheap production calls in Pat and Mo. Occasionally, however, their imagination outstrips their budget and, as in this case, they produce something very effective at a minimal cost. The opera is set on a bare stage with a minimum of scenery, just the odd dead stag. The characters are filmed mostly in close-up with spotlighting against a black backdrop. This produces a pleasing chiaroscuro effect although I suspect it is more effective on film than live on stage.

Apparently two versions of this production were filmed, one starring Patrizia Ciofi and Roberto Alagna and the other starring Natalie Dessay and Sébastian Na. This seems very democratic but it would have made more sense to make just one film with the obvious A-team of Dessay and Alagna. The version I saw was with Dessay and Na. I was eagerly looking forward to hearing Dessay tackle this role because she is currently the world's leading high-note specialist and she gives good mad as anyone who has heard her Ophelia can testify. She is an obvious successor to Callas and Sutherland in these bel canto roles and it is good to see her getting into them. She seems reluctant to sing in any language other than French so maybe this Lucie is a halfway house on her road to tackling Lucia.

What surprised me is that Donizetti's 1839 version is not just a translation, it is a wholesale revision. Some characters are lost, some are merged and the role of Sir Arthur, Lucie's unfortunate husband, has been expanded somewhat so that at least you learn a little about him before she butchers him. Most of these changes to the plot make sense but where I have reservations is in Donizetti's changes to the music. He cuts out much of the coloratura, which admittedly does not work so well in French. Most disastrously he butchers his greatest hit, the mad scene. I was eagerly anticipating Dessay's crazy duet with the flute but it never happens. This is a very moving but also a very subdued mad scene from Dessay. It contrasts strongly with the barking mad performance that Stefania Bonfadelli gives in the 2003 film.

Ludovic Tézier makes an impressive Lord Henry Ashton, both vocally and dramatically. Sadly Sébastian Na as Lucie's lover Edgard is underpowered and chops his vocal lines up, giving the impression that he is singing in Korean. He is fond of facial contortions but Tézier can convey more with just a twitch of the lip.

Watch out for the wedding scene in Act III. Pat and Mo, having splashed out for lots of suits of armour in Act I, find that they can't afford the ball gowns for the women's chorus. So what do they do? They dress the women up in the suits of armour and give them little moustaches and goatees. Unless they really think that is what Scottish women look like.