Donizetti’s Lucia
di Lammermoor was first performed
at the Teatro San Carlo, Naples on 26th
September 1835 only seventeen years
after the first publication of Sir Walter
Scott’s novel. The opera has been firmly
established in the repertoire ever since
and has attracted fine recordings from
some of the world’s leading singers
including: Sutherland, Pavarotti and
Milnes; Studer and Domingo; Callas,
Di Stefano, and Gobbi and Caballé
and Carreras. This powerful production
recorded from the stage of Milan’s Teatro
alla Scala in 1992, is released now
from the archives of RAI television.
It is a traditional production with
imposing sets that heighten dramatic
impact and darkly sumptuous costumes.
This production is
the full version of Donizetti’s opera
– i.e. sometimes there are omissions
of the Act II scene in which Raimondo
assures Lucia that her dead mother would
have wanted her to marry Arthur adding
that God would help her through her
torment, and the Act III scene in which
sworn enemies, Enrico and Edgardo agree
to a duel to the death.
The highlight of the
opera is of course the often-recorded
mad scene (Il dolce suono).
Lucia, in this production is positioned
against a receding set of narrow high-spanning
castle arches and ascending steps to
one very high vertical narrow window
giving a sense of vertigo and dizziness
that adds atmosphere to the aria. Mariella
Devia gives it her all in dramatic (some
unkind observers might say rather over-dramatic)
and coloratura acrobatic brilliance.
Certainly the rapturous applause at
its end signified that the highly critical
Milan audience was well pleased.
Another highlight
of this production is the nicely stage-managed
and magnificent singing of all concerned
in Donizetti’s brilliant Act II sextet
(Chi mi frena in tallo momento)
when the exiled Edgardo, Lucia’s lover,
returns in fury to interrupt the forced
wedding of convenience of Lucia to Arturo
instigated by Lucia’s cruel, manipulative
brother, Enrico. The sextet is completed
by the observations of the chaplain
Raimondo and Lucia’s companion Alisa.
Elsewhere Vincenzo
La Scola impresses as Edgardo by turns
ardent, vengeful then despairing. His
Act III arias amongst the tombs of the
Ravenswood are most moving and again
drew very warm applause. Marco Berti,
a higher-voiced, more lyric tenor, makes
a dashing and remarkably handsome Arturo
so much so that one wonders how Lucia
could resist him in favour of a less
imposing-looking Edgardo. Carlo Colombara
is a tower of ecclesiastical strength
as the sympathetic yet ‘politically
correct’ Raimondo and Ernesto Gavazzari
is all machiavellian slyness as the
scheming Normanno.
But it is cruel eyed,
intransigent Renato Brusson as Lord
Enrico Ashton who upstages all giving
a magnificent performance in voice and
acting.
A definite disadvantage
of this album, i.e. - for repeated viewings
when one might want to dip into the
DVD for selected scenes - is the restricted
number of chapter headings, without
aria names, necessitating leaning on
the fast forward button to home onto
precise cues.
A powerfully dramatic
and memorable La Scala production. Recommended.
Ian Lace
Orchestra and Chorus of Teatro alla Scala conducted
by Stefano Ranzani 
Opus
Arte DVD OA LS3003 D (140 mins approx.)