FLOWERS FOR LUCIA

Last week I saw the superb new production of Lucia di Lammermoor at the Metropolitan Opera—and I'm still energized by the experience!

Lucia is an Italian opera from 1835 about a Scottish lass who falls in love with a man who's caught in a blood feud with her own brother! Talk about uncautious!! And ill-fated!!!

The hype about the production revolves around the French diva Natalie Dessay, who deployed cagey acting in her well-shaped interpretations of Lucia's celebrated arias. Another attraction is the direction of Mary Zimmerman, the MacArthur fellowship recipient who won a 2002 Tony for Metamorphoses. With the very generous helping of talent at Zimmerman's disposal, the production is unusually well-rounded as a theatrical as well as a musical event. The three male leads—Mariusz Kwiecien as Enrico (Lucia's brother), Marcello Giordani as Edgardo (Lucia's love), and John Relyea as Raimondo)—all very strong, have roles in which they attempt to dominate Lucia; as the opera unfolds they come to dominate her vocally and also seem to tower over her more and more. She's an incredible shrinking Lucia!

The excellent casting extends to Michaela Martens, who brought her full-bodied voice to the character Alicia and Stephen Costello, a diplomatically sweet-voiced Arturo. And the music! Deborah Hoffman's harp solo (on a Lyon & Healy Style 23 harp?) was exquisite, Cecilia Brauer added armonica atmospherics to the Mad Scene, and the entire orchestra was, as usual, wonderfully responsive to James Levine's baton. (I'm beginning to hear the same kind of push-the-envelope quality in Donizetti's score that I've heard in Beethoven's later work.) The sets ranged from an old-fashioned outdoor scene to a minimalist, somewhat cartoonish, ruin of a castle—strangely yet successfully eclectic.

Hell, I even liked the wedding scene, which Anthony Tommasini (and others) criticized for its clustering of the guests into a photo pose: "Though the moment is beautifully directed, this staging device, again, overwhelmed the stirring performance." Me, I thought it complemented the performance. If I remember correctly, the moment when the flash went off was a dramatic turning point: Yes, Enrico had just succeeded in wedding Lucia to Arturo and estranging her from Edgardo...but, immediately after his contrived "picture perfect" moment, Lucia collapses, a scrim separates her from everyone else, and everything starts to unravel.

The audience Thursday night was generous with its applause, but (to my surprise) there were no flowers for Lucia. So I suppose this is my blog-bouquet for Natalie Dessay and everyone else involved in the production.

$20 rush tickets are available for performances of this particular Lucia on Monday, October 1, 2007 (8:00 pm) and Tuesday, October 9, 2007 (8:00 pm). They go on sale at the Met at 6:00 pm each performance day; on Thursday, it was wise (but, it turned out, unnecessary) to show up by 4:45 pm.

Here's a glimpse of one of Dessay's "Mad Scene" performances. Crazy!



Source (00:34)