Simon Stone's Mad Lucy Takes the Met (HD of 21 May 2022)

 

I've purposefully not read any recent reviews (other than the opening ones from the press following the prima).  Here comes mine, which, I am certain, will be strongly disagreed with - so let's just get THAT out  of the way.  This is, of course, based solely upon viewing and listening to th is Lucia as an HD experience.  

In that vein, this was among the very best HDs I have attended in the entirety of the Met's HD series.  It goes right alongside Girard's Parsifal, McDermott's Akhnaten, and Satyagraha  Minghella's Butterfly and McVicar's Giulio Cesare (pace Dessay naysayers).  

I have a long history and love affair with this opera.  As a child, Lucia was the first opera I ever heard (Lily Pons - then Callas . . . then everybody and their mum), it was my first professional stage production (chorus) and role (Normanno) .  It is near and dear to my heart.

Stone's revolutionary updating was the most physically "drag you into the story" version in my experience with Donizetti's tragic maid.  For me - and for, it seemed, everyone at my HD cinema it worked on myriad levels - equal in both its visceral and intellectual appeal.  This was, as in Stone's interview, owing to the totality of the input from his cast who used his thoughts and production ideas as "a catalyst" to form their own characters in the most unique of ways.  

I've sung in - and never had a problem with - various locals and settings of Lucia, Donizetti's music providing the requisite, haunting spookiness of the tale in brilliant orchestrations - some of the best and most distinguished atmospheric writing of his entire, voluminous output.  If the artists are even "merely adequate"  one gets the sense of being in misty, musty, old-17th century Scotland   I wondered (and worried) how odd or jolting the juxtaposition might be.  I needn't have.  

As one of my companions noted during the first intermission, "this just sounds like MUSIC - it fits perfectly with the libretto and action.  It doesn't sound like "old" music," going on to say that the adaptability of Donizetti made the music feel new - or just timeless - whereas a traditional performance it always sounds like "an old opera."  I concur fully.  It sounded, particularly fresh especially performed by this outstanding cast and Maestro Frizza's gentle yet assuredly firm hand, guiding and controlling everything with the pacing of a great storyteller.  

Vocally, Nadine Sierra was, just about perfect, with a warm, more-lyric-than-coloratura voice - yet like the best lyrics who've essayed the role, undaunted by its fiery pyrotechnics, interpolating high notes into her savvy and pleasing ornamentations   That the voice is a rich and warm one, and wedded to a physically attractive young woman who combined an oddly insouciant innocence with a natural sensuality, she was impossible not to fall in love with, then pity, and then be horrified by.  She - as did every single member of this cast - moved with an athletic grace and sense of purpose that defined the character and stamping her own brand on it.  

Javier Camerena continues to be the most beautiful of the current crop of bel cantists with a rich, warm, sunny voice of such ineffable sweetness that when he exerts pressure - and darkness to it, makes him unique - standing out from other more popular singers of the same roles.  While I always defend Edgardo (I don't understand the disliking of this character, whose young life has been equally destroyed by Enrico's villainy) I have never before cried during this scene. Camerena changed all that.  Additionally, like Sierra's Lucia, Camerena made Edgardo impossible NOT to be loved.  Unless your name is, of course, Enrico.

In Enrico we had what may be, for me at least, the most exciting, performance of the afternoon by Polish baritone Artur Rucinski.  Rucinski took Lucia's dubious brother and turned him into a completely morally bankrupt villain, of such black hearted evil (the singer mentioned Putin as an inspiration for his pure, irredeemable evil)  that he creeped me out whilst thrilling me to my marrow with his singing.  I LOVE when that happens.  As he did in the prima - he held that final note ending the opening scene until next Tuesday, resulting in the crowd (and me) going crazy.  After the prima (heard on Sirius) I got into a minor argument who found Rucinski's "trick" to be "tacky."  I countered that, while I understood the complaint - I disagreed with it.  Rucinski (remarkably) held onto that note some NINE measures after Donizetti's written cut off and THAT for me established two things:  One, Enrico's malevolent dominance, and two, we were in for some "balls out" old-fashioned opera singing.  Besides, Rucinski is hardly the first singer to hold extend that note - Milnes, Panerai, ,Floravanti all come to mind immediately (though none held it QUITE as long as Artur). I firmly believe in giving the audience what they want in this instance, and if it's a long, held out high note, I say go for itl  This is not music of subtlety or grace.  

The glass harmonica has become a "must" for this opera, a flute simply will not do.

The staging of the wedding scene was brilliant - the chorus/extras as bickering white trash at the boiling point for a throw down, adding to the background frisson of the scene - I particularly loved the large "stress eating" guest who kept cramming her mouth as she looked o to the proceedings as if watching a NASCAR event.  The staging of the sextet was among the most perfect I've seen in years - combining a slowing down of he stage movements to the ideal motionlessness towards its end.  Stone had everything in place and just let it be - let the magic of Donizetti and his singers stillness work theatrical magic.

I also enjoyed (not quite the right word) Stone's employing a small army of bloodied "walking dead" corpses of Arturo clones clearly only seen by Lucia (and us) and the presentation of the ghost story in Lucia's retelling of it in Regnava nel silenzio.  

With no disrespect to the rest of the cast, I will only add the they all rose to the challenge, including Christian van Horn who stepped into Raimondo's clinical collar for an indisposed Matthew Rose.  

My HD audience - of which my companions and I, along with a young man with his far older, kilt-clad boyfriend, were the youngest members (by far) all loved the performance.  Several could be heard complaining pre-show, about the updating, but, to a one, couldn't stop talking about how surprised they were, and cheered and applauded the individual numbers and scenes as if live in the house.

The glorious day ended back at the home of my hosts with more relaxed musical fare, including my beloved Laura Nero, Bill Evans, some adorable playful kittens, and a homemade meal - of quiche, sausages and melon.  One of the best days in a long, long time!