By Giuseppe Verdi, by Australian Opera (Opera Australia)
State Theatre April 27, 30, May 3, 6, 9, 1996
Reviewed by Kate
Herbert round April 21, 1996
Funny that I should
see, in one week, two such different renditions of doomed children of political
conflict.
Verdi's Lucia di Lammermoor weeps over the clandestine Romeo
and Juliet-esque romance of Lucia and her consort Edgardo from the wrong side
of the Scottish political fence.
Unrequited love crosses cultural boundaries. Lucia is based
on an English novel, set in Scotland and written in Italian. R and J is set in
Italy written in Elizabethan English. Love knows no language. Lucia with her
passionate immediate love, betrayal, abandonment, madness and suicide, echoes
Ophelia, Karenin, Lady Macbeth. The terrifying thing is that this story of
"violent love" is based on a true story. Beware love! One can die
from it.
Gregory Tomlinson as Edgardo, is an impassioned romantic
lead with a sublime tenor. Jennifer McGregor's coloratura is delicate and
expressive, sending a frisson down the spine during her mad scene. In Il dolce suono mi colpi she virtually
sings a duet with the piccolo. It is this scene which has made Lucia the
"touch-stone of the bel canto repertoire".
The excellent cast surpassed itself in the six part Chi mi frena at the wedding contract
scene. Bruce Martin was a powerful subtle presence and voice as Lucia's tutor,
Raimondo and Michael Lewis as her brother Enrico was a dark force.
Conductor Richard Gill and the VSO were, as ever, excellent.
Henry Bardon's stage design of a dank, grand Scottish castle was made
atmospheric by Donn Byrnes' lighting.
This is a conservative production by John Copley and we
travelled from the ridiculous to the sublime after Nabucco the previous night.
However, such a production concentrates on the music and voices which is not a
bad thing for opera.
KATE HERBERT
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