Lucia di Lammermoor Goes Nuts once more in San Francisco
I WOULD LOVE TO SING LIKE THAT WHEN I GO INSANE
San Francisco Opera’s Lucia di Lammermoor
I love this opera! I have seen distraught Lucia’s go mad at least a half dozen times on stages from Boston to San Francisco and no matter how each one does it, I am right there with her, my heart breaking, my eyes welling tears, my nose dripping on my bodice. However, in this particular production, Natalie Dessay was not quite as insane and or nearly as bloody as I like. My take is that if you are going to sing while your mind disintegrates wearing a flimsy nightgown in front of a stunned audience of friends, your bastard of a brother who caused it all and the rest of us, you should really make it a shocker.
In the past, I have watched, mesmerized as Lucia staggers from a balcony down a winding staircase grabbing the banister, tripping, catching herself, tumbling helter-skelter to the bottom and rolling a bit on the floor all the while emitting gloriously poignant trills and coloratura passages that tear my heart out. This time, for reasons I cannot fathom, directors Graham Vick and Marco Gandini chose to have her fall to pieces on a moor covered with blood red rose petals. It was effective in its way and I cannot fault Dessay’s beautifully sensitive interpretation of a good woman gone mad. She was superb in spite of it all. Still, she lacked the proper setting, the atmosphere wasn’t very gripping and the build-up to her Big Moment was marred by a strange manipulation of backdrops that didn’t feel anything like
Nonetheless, you cannot beat the arias in this opera: one gorgeous song after another tumble from the voices on stage. I particularly loved bass Oren Gradus (Raimondo) but all the singers moved me. Yet, none could touch the artistry and vocal expression of Dessay’s interpretation of her character. Despite a backdrop that detracted and stage movement that seemed contrived, her voice soared and the night I was there she received one well-deserved ovation after another.
It is very difficult to conduct an orchestra that doesn’t drown out the voices on stage, particularly a delicate and beautiful lyric-coloratura soprano like Dessay, but Jean Yves Ossonce kept the music at just the right level that highlighted and enhanced the performers’ efforts.
Lucia di Lammermoor is an opera to love. It has all the ingredients of an extravagant, over-emotional melodrama. We see a greedy brother who forces his sister to marry a man she doesn’t love by discrediting her true love. We see a man who does not trust his lover and vilifies her for an act she cannot help. The inevitable we want happens: she cannot take the heat and literally falls apart in the bedroom. This is the stuff of opera and we love it.
You owe it to yourself to see this production. I admit is isn’t the best Lucia I have seen, but even so, Natalie Dessay ripped my heart to shreds and I had to be restrained from eviscerating her lousy brother, Enrico (Gabriele Viviani) before he had a chance for a well-deserved curtain call.
IF YOU GO:
WHERE: War Memorial Opera House
WHEN: June 29 @ 2pm
July 2 @ 7:30 pm
July 5@ 8 p.m
TICKETS: www.sfopera.com
415 864 3330
Standing room tickets on sale 10 a.m. day of each performance $10.00