Lucia di Lammermoor

Bel canto is a bit like country music for eggheads, big tunes and obvious emotions. I love it but rarely get the opportunity to hear it, either live or on film. I am going to hear Lucia di Lammermoor at La Scala Milan soon and, in order to get a taste of what to expect, I had to lay out £25 of my own money to buy this DVD. I plumped for this attractive, widescreen, modern version rather than one of the several versions made by Joan Sutherland in the 1970s and 1980s. It turned out to be a good choice.

The libretto of Lucia is based on Sir Walter Scott's "The Bride of Lammermoor". In Donizetti's opera all the politics and back-story is stripped out and we are left with a simple story of love, betrayal and madness. Lucia is secretly betrothed to her brother's enemy Sir Edgardo di Ravenswood. Her brother Lord Enrico Ashwood, tricks her into believing that Edgardo has been unfaithful and persuades her to marry Lord Arturo Bucklaw. On her wedding night, she learns the truth, becomes comprehensively insane and murders her husband.

In this production for Teatro Carlo Felice, Genova, the stage director Graham Vick has chosen a resolutely Scottish look. Most of the action takes place on a wind-blasted Scottish moor with the stage being covered with purple heather. The Ashwoods wear a blue tartan and Sir Edgardo wears a red tartan. To emphasise her Scottishness, the soprano Stefania Bonfadelli wears a flowing, curly wig the colour of orange peel. The overall effect is attractive although it is a bit reminiscent of Brigadoon.

One reason that this opera is not often performed is that the soprano role really needs someone of the calibre of Maria Callas or Joan Sutherland. Stefania Bonfadelli proves herself to be a worthy successor to these performers. She has a fragile beauty with mad, staring eyes. She does not descend into madness: right from her opening scene it is clear that this Lucia is one shortbread light of a cracker-barrel. I thought, at the beginning, that Bonfadelli was a little uncertain in the lower part of her register but the higher the music soars the better she sounds. She has a light but beautiful tone, ideal for bel canto. Her duet with Marcello Alvarez's Edgardo: "Verrano a te sull'allure" is the highlight of the first act as Edgardo lays down his red tartan on the heather symbolising their nuptial bed. Of course this opera is all about the mad scene. Instead of playing it in front of the wedding guests, Vick has her play the scene alone among the heather. Covered in blood, Lucia re-enacts the betrothal scene with the tartan blanket, this time with an imaginary lover. Her aria reworks the lover's duet. Bonfadelli's coloratura in the extreme heights of the soprano register is quite dazzling and she makes it look effortless.

Surprisingly, Donizetti does not end on the mad scene. It is a measure of Marcello Alvarez's ability as a tenor in this repertoire that he can make the final 15 minutes of the opera his own.

I love Lucia Di Lammermoor for its tragic story and beautiful music, in short it is one of my favourite operas. This Lucia is decent if uneven. Of all the Lucias I've seen, I would recommend the 1983 Sutherland/Kraus, 1982 Ricciarelli/Carreras and 1967 Scotto/Bergonzi productions over this, however it is better than the Met production with Netrebko(I would have have enjoyed that much more had it not been for an inconsistent Netrebko and the disastrous staging of the Sextet).

My main problems are to do with the staging and sets. The staging in the Mad scene and Sextet are good, however there are some ideas that do distract for me. For instance in the Act 1 duet between Lucia and Edgardo I found the business with the singers' cloaks unnecessary. Also some of the effects in staging for the opening chorus was strange to say the least. The Prussian army coats and headgear also came across as anachronistic.

The sets do look colourful, but I found these colours in general too bright. Lucia Di Lammermoor is a dark and very tragic opera, and while I do invite some colour I think in general it should be equally dark and atmospheric. The sets here are very Technicolour and red in look and colour, for me that jarred with the tone of the opera.

Also for my tastes, Arturo was pretty weak. In all honesty, Arturo is hardly the most compelling character of the opera and you don't see very much of him. But you would expect whoever's playing the role to do something with it, I didn't find that here sadly. For my tastes he was too stiff in his acting and his voice is perhaps too light.

On the other hand, there is much to like. For instance this is a complete performance with no cuts, that's a big bonus in itself. Musically it is not easy at all to fault. The orchestra are wonderful, and I haven't heard a conducting job this dynamic for Lucia in a long time. I also had no problem with the tempos and the shading was perfect.

The chorus are excellent too, Lucia Di Lammermoor is a principal-based opera essentially, but the chorus do very well with what they have, even if some of the staging did elude them at times.

As for the DVD itself, while the sets are a little disappointing(the costumes for the principals were fine), the rest of the production values are simply splendid. The sound is never too muffled, and the picture quality and camera work are simply first rate.

This production's performances are excellent. I did have reservations about Stefania Bonfadelli as Lucia, not that she's a bad singer but whether she was my idea for the role- some of my favourite Lucias like Sutherland and Ricciarelli have bigger and richer voices. Actually apart from occasionally choppy legato lines, she does a very solid job, with a convincing interpretation of the Mad scene, her vocal production not too fatigued and her interaction with Alvarez and Frontali good. Another plus is that although she is very beautiful, the performance is never entirely based on that factor.

Marcelo Alvarez is great as Edgardo. He is ardent as he should be, he is never too stolid in his acting and his voice and technique are excellent. He also comes into his own during his final scene, very moving indeed. Robert Frontoli and Mirco Palazzi are rock solid as Enrico and Raimondo, Frontoli is suitably scheming, sympathetic and powerful and Palazzi really shines in the final forty minutes. Alicia and Normanno are more than adequate too.

In conclusion, very decent but the sets, a weak Arturo and some of the staging made the production from extremely good to just good in general(though great in others). 7/10 Bethany Cox