Saturday, October 30, 2010

Lucia di Lammermoor: by Donizetti

After the massive snooze-fest that was Tristan und Isolde, I was excited to see that we were going to be watching an opera this time around with some action in it. I am always much more interested in the operas with lots of action and a tempo that keeps things moving along swiftly.

Pros: There were some truly wonderful performers in this production. All the main characters were wonderful and the soprano that sang the role of Lucia was outstanding. There were also several duets that truly were audio perfection. The staging was quite wonderful and the chorus was great as well. Act 3 contains the famous mad scene where Lucia sings right after having murdered her husband. The aria is brilliantly written and it is done somewhat as a duet with a flute solo. Never thought of the flute and the soprano voice as being similar but I'll be darned, they go extremely well together. My mom would have called this a goose killer opera. Professionals would call it coloratura. I call it wonderful.

Cons: I really can't think of anything that I didn't like. It really was quite wonderful. Usually I have something that is not my favorite either but the pacing of the entire opera was wonderful and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Must See Rating: *****