Edmonton Journal

You can say you heard her early on

Catch Simone Osborne before she’s famous

- MARK MORRIS

Lucia di Lammermoor Organizati­on: Edmonton Opera Conductor: Robert Tweten Director: Brian Deedrick Starring: Robert Breault, Jason Howard and Simone Osborne Where: Jubilee Auditorium When: Saturday night, continues Tuesday and Thursday

Edmonton Opera’s production of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor puts paid to any fears that the budget consciousn­ess of the management that took over two years ago would mean cutprice singers.

Lucia, written in the great age of bel canto singing, is above all a singers’ opera. It needs a singing star in the title role, and this production has one.

Twenty-eight-year-old Canadian soprano Simone Osborne has already attracted internatio­nal attention, but this was her first Lucia. It was also the first time that I have heard her, and initially, as she started off a little tentativel­y, I wondered if she was the victim of too much hype.

By the time she sang her scene with Enrico before the wedding, though, it was clear that the accolades are genuinely deserved. Vocally, she reminds me of the late Renata Tebaldi: there is the same descent into a strong, dark lower range, and the ability to ascend seamlessly into the highest range, and a similar intelligen­ce in the vocal acting.

In other words, she is a lyric rather than a coloratura soprano, though her top range happily met the demands of a role that was not in Tebaldi’s repertoire. Osborne’s Mad Scene was the tour-de-force it needs to be, beautifull­y sung, convincing­ly and quite passionate­ly acted, a woman who still has the touch of the girl as she loses her reason.

Her stage presence, though, doesn’t yet quite match her vocal abilities, though this will come with experience. Her unsympathe­tic costumes, designed by Deborah Trout for Seattle Opera, didn’t help (the rest of the costumes were excellent). But there is something that is overeager in the timing of her gestures, as if she was acting for the theatre, rather than the opera stage.

Lucia di Lammermoor is, though, much more than a one-role opera. Robert Breault, as Lucia’s lover, also started a little hesitantly, but quickly settled into a commanding performanc­e, his rich tenor filling the cavernous Jubilee to the delight of the audience. Welsh baritone Jason Howard was forceful and authoritat­ive as Lucia’s brother, Enrico, and one wouldn’t have known that he was indisposed for the last week of rehearsals.

Strong support came from bass-baritone Giles Tomkins as Raimondo and Robert Clark as Arturo, and, vocally, from the chorus. Conductor Robert Tweten kept the pace lively in the pit, and the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra showed how well they can play for the right conductor, with notable contributi­ons from the horns and harpist Nora Bumanis.

The multi-level sets, designed by Robert Dahlstrom for Seattle Opera, are splendid, as dramatic and brooding as the opera, and are effectivel­y lit by David Fraser.

Brian Deedrick’s stage direction was less effective. The blocking of the chorus was sometimes unimaginat­ive, and there were some unfortunat­e directoria­l choices. The staging of the famous sextet put the singers so far apart that the musical balance inevitable suffered, and the visual focus was dissipated. Seeing Lucia and her husband go into the bridal bedroom only a minute or so before Raimondo describes the subsequent events in that room makes nonsense of any time frame.

Most awkward of all was the continuous appearance of the ghost that Lucia tells about in the first Act. To have her seen in the distance in the opening music was very effective, but when she kept reappearin­g, it was wearisome.

Anyone dressed completely in white against dark background­s will draw the eye, and this ghost upstaged Osborne in Lucia’s crucial first aria. The error was compounded in the last scene, where Deedrick not only reintroduc­ed the ghost, but accompanie­d her with the ghost of Lucia herself.

This ran counter to the whole effect of Donizetti’s ending, where all the characters are intentiona­lly male, and Edgardo’s dying aria is so telling because Lucia isn’t there. In bel canto opera, sometimes a director should stand back and simply let the singer sing.

I wondered, too, about the wisdom of restoring Act III, scene I, which is usually cut. It does give Enrico and Edgardo a chance for more singing but the music isn’t that distinguis­hed, and it does interrupt the fast-moving flow of the wedding and its consequenc­es.

None of this really distracts from the musical impact of this production. The final two performanc­es, on Tuesday and Thursday, will probably be even better, as Osborne and Breault put any first-night nerves behind them.

So don’t miss it. Then sometime in the future, when you go and hear Osborne starring at the height of what promises to be a stellar career, you will be able to turn to the person sitting beside you and say, “You know, I saw her sing her first Lucia.”

 ?? CATHERINE SZABO ?? Canadian soprano Simone Osborne lives up to her hype in Edmonton Opera’s production of Lucia di Lammermoor.
CATHERINE SZABO Canadian soprano Simone Osborne lives up to her hype in Edmonton Opera’s production of Lucia di Lammermoor.

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