World-class Sarah saves poor Lucia
Lucia di Lammermoor (English National Opera) Verdict: Great music, giggle-inducing production ★★★✩✩
TWO reasons for going to see this revival of Donizetti’s masterpiece are a superb musical presentation and the singing of the title role by British soprano Sarah Tynan, who deserves a better frame for her worldclass portrayal.
I had forgotten just how bad David Alden’s production is, but let us concentrate on the music, as conductor Stuart Stratford gives us a wonderfully full version of an opera which has often been mangled.
Tynan takes us back to a time before Callas and Sutherland, when slightly lighter, more limber voices ruled in Lucia’s World class: Tynan as Lucia intricate arias and improvised decorations. Her Edgardo, Mexican tenor Eleazar Rodriguez, mostly sings well, although he is tempted by the producer into over-emoting.
Similarly, the impressive baritone Lester Lynch, making his ENO debut, is lured into singing that would suit Mascagni better.
Sets and costumes are irredeemably drab and drear.
The acting is literally staggeringly bad, as characters lurch with staring eyes as if inhabiting an inferior silent movie.
The prize for over-acting and overloading Donizetti’s delicate lines goes to Clive Bayley as the chaplain Raimondo, while the award for staring aghast into space is won by Sarah Pring as Lucia’s companion.
Donizetti’s coup de theatre of an offstage murder is ruined (as in Covent Garden’s even worse version) by having Arturo’s body visible. Incestuous sexual abuse, foreign to Donizetti, is imposed on an already appalling tragedy.
Lynch’s implacable Enrico repents then reverts in the final scene which should belong solely to Edgardo. Incompetence rules . . .