Lucia di Lammermoor

[chickenfeet]

We'll forget the plot, which has more holes in it than the Italian defence at Twickenham, and get straight on to the singing. It was wonderful. My pick would be the Snidely Whiplash Enrico of Mariusz Kwiecien. He has a marvelous baritone and is a really good actor both vocally and physically. I'd love to see him in something like Don Giovanni where he could be a bit less one dimensional. Piotr Beczala as Edgardo was a late replacement for Juan Villazon. It was his Met debut in the part and he was really good too. Maybe he was tiring just a little towards the end but the last act is really hard on this part. Anna Netrebko was, surprise, surprise, wonderful. Her mad scene was note perfect and managed to stay in the difficult ground between over acting and not making the most of it. All the lesser parts were well done.

The sets were pretty good though so elaborate that the intermissions were very long to accommodate the changes. I'm not convinced about moving the action up to the late Victorian period. The plot is dodgy enough without sticking two hundred years worth of anachronisms on to it. All in all though very entertaining if not one of the best things I've seen in this series.

Comments

[lakme.livejournal.com]

They have to get better costume designers; Anna looked like a stuffed sausage casing in that first outfit. There's always some awful outfits at the Met operas, I find. They never seem to think about the way the singer will look in them. No cleavage action today which has also been a costuming trend last year and this year :)

I actually thought Anna got a tiny bit off pitch in the mad scene at one part. It was a good part for her, though; she should do more bel canto roles.

I don't know why I forgot this since I saw the 2005 production of Lucia with Elizabeth Futral live, but Lucia is darned long. It was very well done and enjoyable, but by the end I was thinking "JUST DIE ALREADY!" They added that extra duet between Edgardo and Enrico that usually gets cut, and it made it a bit too long for my liking.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

Gheorghiu had the cleavage thing going in La Rondine. It was really a wonder that she stayed in her dress at all in the third act.

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

I listened to some of this broadcast on the radio. I listened to Rigoletto last week - a deliberate decision to try to listen to more opera - but yesterday it was on whilst I was doing other stuff. It didn't actually grab me - I wasn't concentrating and it was pleasant enough in the background, but I switched it off when I started cooking. I think perhaps it didn't match my mood.

Part of the problem was the plot as the continuity people described it - and the Italian names deep in the Highlands. My suspension of disbelief simply wasn't deep enough!

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

It's one where you pretty much have to ignore the plot plus Donizetti was never one for getting his geography right(1) and BTW, isn't Lammermuir south of Edinburgh rather than in the highlands? Also, I don't think I'd want to listen to it so much. The visuals are pretty important in this piece. Actually they are in most operas. I'm not sure that trying to listen to an opera one hasn't seen is really such a good idea.

(1) My favourite is "Emilia da Liverpool" where Liverpool is a beautiful city in a charming Alpine setting and the baddy's coach is washed away in the mountain torrents of the Mersey!

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

Your geography is spot on - my mistake! The Lammermuir Hills are in the Borders.

I love the idea of Liverpool in the Alps!

Listening to opera - making use of a free resource - is part of me trying to learn more about it - find out which operas I like and don't, and which I might enjoy actually going to see. I have been underwhelmed by the live opera I have seen, but I don't know if it is the concept itself, the specific production, or the individual opera or composer. It is a bit too expensive to experiment with live opera - although I have thought about going along to the live broadcasts from the Met, and I think the Royal Opera House is going to be doing netcasts in the future.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

DVDs are pretty cheap now too. The Met ones are selling here for about $25.

[linzq.livejournal.com]

Where are you finding these cheap Met DVDs? :)

And, are you normally a Netrebko fan? I haven't heard her Lucia yet, but I am much more in the Mesple/Dessay school, so can't picture it..

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

Now I check the Met ones are more like $35 at Amazon. I remembered "La Fille du Regiment" being cheaper (it is) but that was actually recorded at Covent Garden even though it's the same production.

ETA: Onegin and La Boheme are less than $25 at Amazon

I had not seen Netrebko before except in excerpts. I'm not convinced it's the ideal role for her. I guess I would tend to go with a true coloratura. The best I've heard is Sumi Jo.