Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Simon Stone’s busy, audaciously updated Donizetti’s LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR puts an emphasis on filmic presentation

• By drediman
• May 6, 2022
• No Comments

Earlier this week, I had the chance to catch up with Simon Stone’s new production of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor for the Metropolitan Opera. Mr. Stone was fast building a name for himself in the New York theater scene in the years leading up to the pandemic, having scored critical successes with his striking productions of Yerma and Medea at the Park Avenue Armory and BAM, respectively. Now the auteur director has turned his attention to the city’s largest stage, where his new staging of Lucia di Lammermoor was unveiled last week (replacing the perfectly fine, certainly more traditional staging by Mary Zimmerman).

Most noticeably, Mr. Stone has updated the setting of the opera, which now audaciously takes place in the economically depressed rust belt of contemporary America, thereby maximizing – from multiple characters’ perspectives – the desperation underlying the piece. If you can get over the often awkward blocking of his busy Brechtian staging, there’s plenty to fascinate over, namely the director’s insistence on creating a cinematic experience. Firstly, there’s the fluid use of Lizzie Clachan’s rotating set, which lends a cinematic flow to the proceedings. Then there’s the multimedia aspect of the production, which renders the opera’s key moments in projected close-ups above the stage action (taking full advantage of the Met stage’s impressive verticality – a rare occurrence). As the tragic opera unfolds, the physical arrangements of Ms. Clachan’s iconoclastic set pieces (a dilapidated house, a pharmacy, a fast food joint, a motel room, and drive-in cinema) get increasingly muddled, excruciatingly mirroring Lucia’s deteriorating mental state. Musically, conductor Riccardo Frizza drew out a lucid reading of the Donizetti score from the Met Orchestra and the Met Chorus sounded robust despite the aforementioned blocking.

The opera’s three central performances are vocally exceptional and emotionally raw. In the title role, Soprano Nadine Sierra brings subtle nuances to the production’s now drug addicted Lucia, all the while nailing the character’s vocal trills and coloraturas. Artur Ruciński, who fearlessly wielding his rich baritone throughout, is convincingly menacing as Lucia’s abusive brother. And as Lucia’s doomed love interest, Javier Camarena is both ardent and heartbreaking. His ringing tenor has grown huskier since I last saw him, bringing added depth and texture to his celebrated voice.

RECOMMENDED

LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR
Opera
The Metropolitan Opera
3 hours, 25 minutes (with two intermissions)
Through May 21