A masterpiece, no question
Goes to see an enthralling, heart-rending version of at the London Coliseum
As a cocky young whippersnapper, I had the temerity to challenge the doyen of opera critics Rodney Milnes on his adamant view that Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor was “a masterpiece”. Fidelio is a masterpiece, I bristled, Otello is a masterpiece, but Lucia is just, well, a standard cut of bel canto melodrama.
Rodney, bless him, had the sense to laugh off my bravado, and I am now shamefaced at my arrogance. In any case, I didn’t really mean it – I have adored Lucia ever since I heard the first Joan Sutherland recording; and of course, by any liberal definition it should rank as a masterpiece, as ENO’s superb revival demonstrates.
From the opening prelude, as horns and timpani paint an atmosphere of eerie melancholy, the tale of a girl, innocent but unstable, trapped between two feuding families is conveyed with keen psychology and emotional variety, underpinned by a technique marked by prudent economy and canny theatricality.
Nor should Donizetti’s inspiration be written off as slick craftsmanship; this score is as richly expressive as anything composed by an Italian of the period. The duets in this opera are electrically charged, the choruses brilliantly managed. Yes, a masterpiece, no question.
But I didn’t feel so positive about that the last time I saw it, when its qualities were obfuscated by a pretentious staging at Covent Garden leadenly directed by Katie Mitchell. Not so at the Coliseum, where David Alden has returned to fine-tune his 2008 staging for a new cast, with enthralling results.
Here’s a classic example of direction that illuminates text and music without distortion or deconstruction: working through his hugely talented designers Charles Edwards, Brigitte Reiffenstuel and Adam Silverman, Alden extends Walter Scott’s 17th-century Borders scenario into the imaginative terrain of the Brontës and Dickens: Lammermoor Castle is cold, barren and decrepit, dominated by portraits redolent of a more prosperous past. Albeit broke and desperate, the Ashtons are bourgeois Victorians, in contrast to Edgardo, the kilted laird of Ravenswood romantically attached to the Jacobite cause. Three sorts of morality clash here, with the Calvinist chaplain Raimondo preaching fire and brimstone all round.
Alden subtly suggests the childhood bond between Lucia and her brother Enrico – that goes back to the nursery where they fight over toys and where what might have once been a game has turned violent and incestuous. Lost in dreamy isolation, Lucia seems to be playing out a role, performing her murderous collapse before an audience, in a world in which nobody can be trusted and nobody wins.
Stuart Stratford is the ideal conductor. His intense engagement and energy fertilise the rich colours of the score, belying the cliché that Donizetti’s orchestration is thin and jejune. Stratford’s approach pushes the cast quite hard, and like thoroughbred Lucia di Lammermoor horses, they rise to the challenge. Alongside sharply focused cameos from Sarah Pring as Alisa, Michael Colvin as Arturo and Elgan Llyr Thomas as Normanno, Clive Bayley goes wonderfully over the top as the ranting Raimondo and Lester Lynch has vocal power to burn as Enrico.
The two principals are outstanding. The Mexican tenor Eleazar Rodriguez sings Edgardo with tasteful elegance, avoiding any temptation to sob or roar; and Sarah Tynan, currently ENO’s one authentic home-grown star, makes a heart-rendingly fragile and vulnerable Lucia, bringing exquisite poise and sensitivity to “Ardon gl’incensi”.
This isn’t an opera that benefits from translation to English and Amanda Holden’s translation doesn’t always avoid implausible fustian. But this is a marvellous performance that vindicates the genius of one of the greatest of opera composers.