Lucia di LammermoorGaetano Donizetti
CAST:
Conductor: James Levine
Lucia: Natalie Dessay
Edgardo: Marcello Giordani
Enrico: Mariusz Kwiecien
Raimondo: John Relyea
PRODUCTION TEAM:
Production: Mary Zimmerman
Set Designer: Daniel Ostling
Lighting Designer: T. J. Gerckens
Choreographer: Daniel Pelzig
NEW YORK, NEW YORK(September 27, 2007) – The Metropolitan Opera opened with Lucia di Lammermoor in September. Peter Gelb once more successfully billed the new production’s premier as an event, and many famous faces were in the audience opening night.
I arrived in New York to see the second performance, just two days after the premier. The entire city was a buzz with excitement over the new Lucia. A first class advertising campaign covered billboards and busses with a slogan someone thought was cute, “you’ll be MAD you missed it!”
Mary Zimmerman’s first major opera placed the saga in a sort of Jane Austin-esque Scotland. The opera opened strangely, with a large black wall covering all but a small area of the stage. Behind the wall was a several hills, a friend I attended with joked that it looked like a large pile of dog poop...I think she was sort of correct. As they brought large hounds across the stage searching for an intruder the small opening didn’t serve anything well and the male chorus and dogs hobbled around the awkward opening. Finally as the first aria began.
Leading the serious of challenging arias to come was Baritone Mariusz Kwiecien as Enrico. Sufficiently nasty, the young baritone proved himself to be among the finest interpreters of the Bel Canto literature. In his aria “Cruda, funesta smania”, where he talks about his desire to see an enemy struck down by lightning he was very commanding.
Natalie Dessay’s Lucia was wonderful from the start, and herfirst notes were stunning. She sang them with her back to the audience, and the voice was large and attractive in the Met’s massive house. In her first aria (“Quando rapito in estasi”) she sang about the sprit that haunts the estate of her family. A woman appeared as Lucia told the tale, she was painted white with very messy hair; yes, the ghost actually appears in Mary Zimmerman’s sick mind. It was just the first of many distractions from a director who doesn’t yet understand that sometimes it can be just about music.
Marcello Giordani’s Edgardo was an impressive and convincing one. From the moment that he entered the stage and Natalie Dessay and him came together I felt that they really were in love. His signing was also as convincing.
In the second act as Lucia learns of her impending marriage the Polish baritone’s Enrico was once more a great force. Lucia began to loose it here, as her home was cleaned up, somehow turned from a dusty parlor to a splendid ballroom before our eyes. One device I loved was after the signing of the marriage documents, Lucia knocked the ink well over as she laments, “I have signed my death warrant” and the ink appeared as blood.
The septet was so well sung I could hardly believe it. Once more Zimmerman had too much going on at once. As each party entered a photographer arranged a group photo culminating in an old fashioned exploding flash bulb at the end of the music. What a distraction. Edgardo’s entrance to the wedding was convincing, but as always in Lucia, the audience was waiting for the mad scene and the moment just seemed long, but well done.
The castle hall was a large stairway and it was filled with well wishers after the wedding. The joy faded quickly as Lucia entered covered in blood for the Mad Scene. The French Soprano knows how to act…it was one of those things that seemed so natural that the music was like speech. Her Lucia had lost her mind completely and killing her husband seemed natural, it was tragic and frightening to watch. She went from sexual bliss to despair to a state of joy throughout the “Spargi d'amaro pianto” section of the scene. The traditional flute was replaced with the original glass armonica producing a ghostly sound. The famous ‘flute cadenza’ was sung without flute as well. The drama of the scene worked better this way.
Dessay proved in the scene why she is the world’s leading Lucia as she ran around the stage, and laid on her back to sing this most difficult scene. She was taken off stage, having fallen dead after a brilliant high f#. The audience went wild, and I understood why it is said that a second performance is better than the first. The audience made missing the opening worth it.
The last act was dominated by Tenor Marcello Giordani’s performance of his suicide
aria. I don’t remember much, the signing was good, but I was quite distracted as Natalie Dessay arrived…painted white and with messed up hair…yes she was a ghost too. She helped her lover kill himself; it must have seemed like a good idea in Zimmerman’s sick mind. To me it just seemed like she was a selfish nasty little bitch.
The orchestra was in world class form under James Levines able hands, and brilliant singing, that’s for sure. The Met’s new Lucia was a failure as a new production. Perhaps with another director things like the ghost will not appear, and Lucia will not come back looking like a bag lady. Dessay was stunning, Giordani was very good, and the sexy baritone Mariusz Kwiecien was very fine.
I arrived in New York to see the second performance, just two days after the premier. The entire city was a buzz with excitement over the new Lucia. A first class advertising campaign covered billboards and busses with a slogan someone thought was cute, “you’ll be MAD you missed it!”
Mary Zimmerman’s first major opera placed the saga in a sort of Jane Austin-esque Scotland. The opera opened strangely, with a large black wall covering all but a small area of the stage. Behind the wall was a several hills, a friend I attended with joked that it looked like a large pile of dog poop...I think she was sort of correct. As they brought large hounds across the stage searching for an intruder the small opening didn’t serve anything well and the male chorus and dogs hobbled around the awkward opening. Finally as the first aria began.
Leading the serious of challenging arias to come was Baritone Mariusz Kwiecien as Enrico. Sufficiently nasty, the young baritone proved himself to be among the finest interpreters of the Bel Canto literature. In his aria “Cruda, funesta smania”, where he talks about his desire to see an enemy struck down by lightning he was very commanding.
Natalie Dessay’s Lucia was wonderful from the start, and herfirst notes were stunning. She sang them with her back to the audience, and the voice was large and attractive in the Met’s massive house. In her first aria (“Quando rapito in estasi”) she sang about the sprit that haunts the estate of her family. A woman appeared as Lucia told the tale, she was painted white with very messy hair; yes, the ghost actually appears in Mary Zimmerman’s sick mind. It was just the first of many distractions from a director who doesn’t yet understand that sometimes it can be just about music.
Marcello Giordani’s Edgardo was an impressive and convincing one. From the moment that he entered the stage and Natalie Dessay and him came together I felt that they really were in love. His signing was also as convincing.
In the second act as Lucia learns of her impending marriage the Polish baritone’s Enrico was once more a great force. Lucia began to loose it here, as her home was cleaned up, somehow turned from a dusty parlor to a splendid ballroom before our eyes. One device I loved was after the signing of the marriage documents, Lucia knocked the ink well over as she laments, “I have signed my death warrant” and the ink appeared as blood.
The septet was so well sung I could hardly believe it. Once more Zimmerman had too much going on at once. As each party entered a photographer arranged a group photo culminating in an old fashioned exploding flash bulb at the end of the music. What a distraction. Edgardo’s entrance to the wedding was convincing, but as always in Lucia, the audience was waiting for the mad scene and the moment just seemed long, but well done.
The castle hall was a large stairway and it was filled with well wishers after the wedding. The joy faded quickly as Lucia entered covered in blood for the Mad Scene. The French Soprano knows how to act…it was one of those things that seemed so natural that the music was like speech. Her Lucia had lost her mind completely and killing her husband seemed natural, it was tragic and frightening to watch. She went from sexual bliss to despair to a state of joy throughout the “Spargi d'amaro pianto” section of the scene. The traditional flute was replaced with the original glass armonica producing a ghostly sound. The famous ‘flute cadenza’ was sung without flute as well. The drama of the scene worked better this way.
Dessay proved in the scene why she is the world’s leading Lucia as she ran around the stage, and laid on her back to sing this most difficult scene. She was taken off stage, having fallen dead after a brilliant high f#. The audience went wild, and I understood why it is said that a second performance is better than the first. The audience made missing the opening worth it.The last act was dominated by Tenor Marcello Giordani’s performance of his suicide
aria. I don’t remember much, the signing was good, but I was quite distracted as Natalie Dessay arrived…painted white and with messed up hair…yes she was a ghost too. She helped her lover kill himself; it must have seemed like a good idea in Zimmerman’s sick mind. To me it just seemed like she was a selfish nasty little bitch.The orchestra was in world class form under James Levines able hands, and brilliant singing, that’s for sure. The Met’s new Lucia was a failure as a new production. Perhaps with another director things like the ghost will not appear, and Lucia will not come back looking like a bag lady. Dessay was stunning, Giordani was very good, and the sexy baritone Mariusz Kwiecien was very fine.
1 comment:
I saw the last show in March and as in the one you saw, Dessay was stunning. I thought Giordani gave a lack-luster performance and I was not pleased with his voice at all. The baritone did well, as did Enrico. Was I mistaken that Enrico, the one she married, was a tenor and not a baritone?
I would watch anything Dessay does! She is utterly sensational!
Post a Comment