Season 2015/16
Opera
Lucia di Lammermoor
by Gaetano Donizetti
Lucia di Lammermoor
Opera in three acts
Music by Gaetano Donizetti
Libretto by Salvadore Cammarano from The Bride of Lammermoor by Walter Scott
Artists
Conductor
Fabrizio Maria Carminati
Director
Graham Vick
Scenes and costumes
Paul Brown
Light design
Gianni Paolo Mirenda
Choir Director
Lorenzo Fratini
Orchestra and Choir of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino
Fabrizio Maria Carminati
Director
Graham Vick
Scenes and costumes
Paul Brown
Light design
Gianni Paolo Mirenda
Choir Director
Lorenzo Fratini
Orchestra and Choir of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino
Lucia
Jessica Pratt / Sumi Jo (23, 27) / Burcu Uyar (30)
Edgardo
Jean-François Borras / Yijie Shi (23, 27, 30)
Enrico Ashton
Julian Kim / Christian Senn (23, 27, 30)
Raimondo
Riccardo Zanellato / Gabriele Sagona (23, 27, 30)
Lord Arturo
Emanuele D’Aguanno
Alisa
Simona di Capua
Normanno
Saverio Bambi
Jessica Pratt / Sumi Jo (23, 27) / Burcu Uyar (30)
Edgardo
Jean-François Borras / Yijie Shi (23, 27, 30)
Enrico Ashton
Julian Kim / Christian Senn (23, 27, 30)
Raimondo
Riccardo Zanellato / Gabriele Sagona (23, 27, 30)
Lord Arturo
Emanuele D’Aguanno
Alisa
Simona di Capua
Normanno
Saverio Bambi
FIRST PART: THE DEPARTURE
In the garden of the castle that once belonged to Ravenswood, now in the hands of the Ashtons, Lord Enrico is pensive. His sister Lucia will not consent to marry Lord Arturo Bucklow, which would help the fate of their house, whose fortunes are in decline. Raimondo, the girl’s cleric, believes that her refusal is due to the recent death of her mother, but Normanno, the head of the armigers, disagrees: Lucia is in love with Sir Edgardo, the last of the Ravenswoods and the enemy of Enrico who swears revenge. In the meantime, Lucia and her handmaiden Alisa are waiting for the arrival of Edgardo near the fountain where one night she saw the ghost of a woman who was killed out of jealousy. Edgardo finally arrives and since he is leaving the next day for France, they exchange rings sealing their eternal love.
SECOND PART: THE MARRIAGE CONTRACT
ACT I
Enrico in his rooms shows his sister a false letter written to convince her of the infidelity of her lover. This upsets her so much that she finally consents to the marriage to Arturo. During the wedding reception Edgardo bursts in and seeing the wedding contract just signed by the girl, throws down the ring that Lucia gave him and curses all of the Ashton family.
ACT II
Enrico reaches Edgardo at the Tower of Wolferag to challenge him to a duel. The appointment is for dawn at the graveyard of the Ravenwoods. At the castle Raimondo interrupts the wedding festivities to announce that Lucia has gone mad and killed her bridegroom. The girl enters and after a long delirium during which the images of the ghost are confused with memories of her beloved and dreams of happiness, she collapses senseless. Edgardo, who is awaiting his rival at the tombs of his ancestors is notified of what has happened at the castle. He wants to see Lucia for one last time but Raimondo tells him that she is already dead. Nothing is left but to kill himself, hoping to be reunited with his beloved Lucia in heaven.
GAETANO DONIZETTI
Nasce a Bergamo il 29 novembre 1797. Di umili origini, riceve i primi insegnamenti musicali alle Lezioni Caritatevoli di Musica di Giovanni Simone Mayr. Dopo un periodo di perfezionamento al Liceo Musicale di Bologna, esordisce nel 1818 con Enrico di Borgogna, per la riapertura del Teatro San Luca di Venezia. Nel 1822 diviene direttore del Teatro San Carlo di Napoli, ruolo che deterrà fino al 1833. Sono anni di frenetica attività compositiva e si susseguono capolavori come Anna Bolena (1830), L’elisir d’amore (1832), Lucrezia Borgia (1833), Lucia di Lammermoor (1835), Maria Stuarda (1835), Roberto Devereux (1837). Nel 1835 Rossini lo invita a Parigi, dove debutta, al Théâtre Italien, con Marin Faliero: è la consacrazione internazionale e l’inizio del prolifico legame con la capitale francese per cui comporrà anche La Fille du régiment (1840) e Don Pasquale (1843). L’8 aprile 1848, reso folle dalla sifilide, muore a Bergamo.
GRAHAM VICK
He was born in 1953 in Birkenhead, England, and studied at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. Production Director at the Scottish Opera and at the Glyndebourne Festival, in 1987 he founded the Birmingham Opera Company, of which he continues to be Artistic Director. His productions of Falstaff and Otello inaugurated respectively the new Royal Opera House Covent Garden (1999) and the 2001/2002 season of the Teatro alla Scala di Milano. A three-time winner of the Premio Abbiati, he is Chevalier de L'Ordes des Arts et des Lettres and Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. In Florence, in addition to Lucia di Lammermoor (1996), he directed Tamerlano (2001), Les Troyens (2002), Rigoletto (2003), Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg e Idomeneo (2004), Anna Bolena (2012), and Macbeth (2013).
PAUL BROWN
Born in 1960 at Glamorgan, Wales, he studied with Margaret Harris at Riverside Studios in London. He designed the scenes and costumes for productions of Mitridate, Re di Ponto, Falstaff, I masnadieri, Tosca, Manon Lescaut and Giselle for the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Lady Macbeth del Distretto di Mcensk and Moses und Aron for the Metropolitan Opera House of New York, Peter Grimes and Parsifal for l’Opéra de Paris, Tristan und Isolde for the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Elektra and Die Frau ohne Schatten for the Mariinskij Theater, Guillaume Tell for the Rossini Opera Festival, Lulu, Pelléas et Mélisande, The Turn of the Screw and Don Giovanni per the Glyndebourne Festival. He also works for theatre and cinema, receiving in 1997 an Oscar nomination for the costumes of the film Angels & Insects.