Presented as part of Opera Queensland’s inaugural Brisbane Bel Canto festival, Lucia di Lammermoor is a pared-back production that serves to showcase the astonishing virtuosity of starring soprano Jessica Pratt.
Lucia di Lammermoor is a three-act tragic opera by Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. The Italian libretto was written by Salvadore Cammarano, based loosely on Sir Walter Scott’s 1819 historical novel The Bride of Lammermoor, and the opera premiered at La Scala, Naples, in 1835.
Set in 17th century Scotland, Lucia di Lammermoor is the doomed love story of the title character and Sir Edgardo di Ravenswood, whose feuding families are sworn enemies. While Edgardo is away on a political mission in France, Lucia’s brother Enrico contrives to have her marry Lord Arturo Bucklaw, a marriage that will secure the family’s future. Convinced by her brother that Edgardo has forsaken her, Lucia agrees, only for Edgardo to burst into the wedding celebrations and curse her faithlessness. Lucia descends into madness, kills her groom, and sings of her imagined life with Edgardo before she dies. Edgardo, learning of her death as he awaits a duel with Enrico, stabs himself and hopes to be reunited with Lucia in heaven.
Directed by CEO and Artistic Director Patrick Nolan, Opera Queensland’s production of Lucia di Lammermoor starred guest soprano Jessica Pratt, one of only three Australian sopranos to perform the role at the famed Italian opera house La Scala (the other two being Dame Nellie Melba and Dame Joan Sutherland). Considered one of the world’s leading Bel Canto singers, Jessica Pratt makes her Brisbane operatic debut with this festival and will perform two concerts of Lucia di Lammermoor, as well as a recital of great arias and scenes from several of Vincenzo Bellini’s operas.
Brisbane Bel Canto is a week-long celebration of “bel canto” singing, which translates simply to “beautiful singing” and which Nolan describes in his program note as exploring the limits of the human voice in opera. This new festival uses the rich and popular repertoire of Italian opera from Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti as a springboard to celebrate song in all its many forms.
Lucia di Lammermoor was sung in Italian, with English surtitles projected onto the bare back wall. Lighting design by Christine Felmingham cast dramatic shadows onto the walls and created the effect of dappled sunlight on water to evoke the fountain, while spotlights narrowed and defined the spaces on the stage in lieu of a full set.
By contrast, costuming by Karen Cochet and Bianca Bulley had all the opulence of leading ladies in opera – I could hear the rustling of Lucia’s gown from the stalls, and her bloodied, glittering veil was an aesthetic highlight for me – while the men were dressed strikingly and distinctively in darker tones. The Opera Queensland Chorus wore ruffs and robes in dark neutral colours and this, combined with the close staging, meant that from afar they seemed to move as one creature.
Donizetti’s score for Lucia di Lammermoor was performed by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Richard Mills AO. I suspect there were some issues with sound in the first act, as the singers’ voices did not reach all the way into the Concert Hall as they did later in the performance.
Jessica Pratt’s interpretation of Lucia was breathtaking in its virtuosity. The emotion and rich complexity of her voice and the control, colour, and variation with which she wielded it were sublime. At the conclusion of the famous and climactic “mad scene”, in which the soprano performs a chilling duet with a solo flute, I realised that my mouth was actually open in awe.
Pratt also gave an excellent dramatic performance and had a wonderful chemistry with Carlos Bárcenas’ stately Edgardo, whose final song among the tombs of his ancestors was especially passionate and resonant. Sam Dundas displayed great dramatic expression and a powerful voice as Lucia’s scheming brother Enrico, and David Parkin brought a strong vocal performance and theatrical presence to the stage as the chaplain Raimondo. The cast was rounded out by Virgilio Marino as Lucia’s husband Arturo, Hayley Sugars as her sympathetic handmaid Alisa and Iain Henderson as the captain of the guard, Normanno. The leading singers were supported by the collective might of the Opera Queensland Chorus.
Filled with murder, madness, love, lies, and ghosts, Lucia di Lammermoor is part of a centuries-long tradition of tragic storytelling. The first two acts, which built slowly in tension and pace, laid a foundation for the stunning final act in which Lucia’s wedding guests bore silent witness to her rapid descent into madness. Pratt was transcendent, but Bárcenas and Parkin also gave especially strong performances in this final act.
There is a special alchemy in the combination of live orchestra and the human voice, but I have never heard anything like Jessica Pratt’s performance as Lucia. Taking a no-frills approach to staging in order to fully showcase their spellbinding starring soprano, Opera Queensland’s Lucia di Lammermoor was an exciting start for a brand-new festival.
Lucia di Lammermoor will be performed at the QPAC Concert Hall on 20 & 27 April 2024
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