Lucia Di Lammermoor at Oper Leipzig
About the Event
Two lovers who are victims of two hostile families, that's how the famous literary critic Marcel Reich‐Ranicki described Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, the original scheme of almost all the love tragedies on the stage of modern times. The Italian opera of the 19th century added to the ensemble the madness of dizzying arias of coloratura for their female protagonists. An example of this is Gaetano Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, a protagonist caught in the middle of a dispute between centuries‐old rival Scottish clans. Lucia lives with her brother Enrico in Ravenswood Castle, acquired in a dubious way. Enrico seeks to improve his own social position by marrying Lucia into a well‐positioned family. But Lucia is in love with the family's arch‐enemy, Edgardo di Ravenswood. During the wedding ceremony, she kills Lord Arthur Bucklaw in the wedding chamber. Society declares her immediately mad when she appears in her blood‐soaked wedding dress.
Long before mental health became a recognized field of medical research, Donizetti tried to musically interpret a state of mind and hit the mark. Therefore, Belcanto means more than a beautiful song, The beautiful music of The beautiful song increases our empathy with the protagonists, so that in the end the question arises for us, who have succumbed to madness, for the sensitive soul who commits a murder in its absolute hopelessness, or for the society around it, who suppresses all personal feelings and unscrupulously pursues its own interests.
Cast / Production
Musical Director: Anthony Bramall
Production company: Katharina Thalbach
Scenario: Momme Röhrbein
Costumes designer: Angelika Rieck
Choral Production: Alexander Stessin
Dramaturgy: Christian Geltinger
Lucia: Bianca Tognocchi
Alisa, Lucias Confident: Dorothee Schlemm‐Gál
Lord Enrico Ashton: Mathias Hausmann
Sir Edgardo Di Ravenswood: Kyungho Kim
Lord Arthur Bucklaw: Patrick Vogel
Raimondo Bidebent: Sejong Chang
Normanno: Dan Karlström
Choir: Opernchor
Orchestra: Gewandhausorchester
