Lucia di Lammermore

by Gaetano Donizetti

seen at the Coliseum on 30 October 2018

Stuart Stratford conducts Sarah Tynan as Lucia, Lester Lynch as Enrico Ashton , Eleazer Rodriguez as Edgardo, Michael Colvin as Lord Arturo Bucklow, Clive Bayley as Raimondo Bidebent, Sarah Pring as Alisa and Elgan Llŷr Thomas as Normanno in Donizetti's adaptation of Sir Walter Scott's novel The Bride of Lammermore, directed by David Alden and designed by Charles Edwards. It was first seen at ENO in 2008; this is therefore a revival.

The novel is set in the 17th or the 18th century (depending on the edition consulted) but this production has opted for 19th century dress (frock suits and wide crinolines) more suggestive of the composition date of the opera (1835). It's an effective move, as the costumes are almost entirely in black, white or shades of grey, while the set is likewise monotone, depicting a grandiose but dilapidated country house, with horrifying patches of black damp on the plaster. The only signs of colour are a couple of children's toys, and the lurid bloodstains on Lucia's dress after she has murdered her husband Lord Arturo (himself dressed in brilliant and foppish white for the marriage ceremony). Only Edgardo's muted green and blue tartan kilt and brown leather jacket distinguishes him from all the other soberly dressed males. Lucia herself is at first in grey, but wears a white wedding dress and then a bloodstained white nightdress.

The setting itself is restricted to huge walls with great sashwindows, or a urious alcove like stage; even the fountain and graveyard scenes are managed by the clever use of the vast flats that are wheeled into different positions. This underscores the claustrophobic atmosphere of family resentments and clannish feuding which drives the whole story. Indeed, Enrico's determination to marry off his sister, given a cursory mercenary motivation in the libretto, is here made to seem disturbingly tangled up with all sorts of sibling rivalry and infantile obsession as he plays with a spinning top and ties Lucia to the bedpost with a skipping rope. It's all very unhealthy.

The principals sang well, the men all in different ways circling round Lucia and creating the disaster which envelops her. But Sarah Tynan held her own and gave a warm and supremely confident performance, descending believably into madness. The glass harmonica was a suitably eerie accompaniment to the famous mad scene, in accordance with what was evidently Donizetti's original intention before substituting the more conventional flute.