Reviews 2004
Reviews 2004
✭✭✩✩✩
by Gaetano Donizetti, directed by James Robinson
Canadian Opera Company, Hummingbird Centre, Toronto
September 25-October 8, 2004
In contrast to the COC’s production of The Handmaid’s Tale, where all elements of the production combine to thrilling effect, in Lucia di Lammermoor none of these come together rendering what should be an exciting story resolutely uninvolving. Based Sir Walter Scott’s novel, Donizetti’s 1835 opera tells the tale of Lucia (Marina Mescheriakova) forced into an arranged marriage by her brother Enrico (Russell Braun), a Scottish lord. When Edgardo (Yasu Nakajima), the man she loves, arrives at the wedding, he curses her for her betrayal. This pushes her over the edge. She kills her new husband and confronts the public with her deed in the most famous mad scene in all opera.
Undermining the effect is one of the least attractive productions ever seen at the COC. The setting has been shifted from Scotland seemingly to somewhere in the Russian Arctic dominated by wobbly corrugated glaciers with doors in them. Director James Robinson provides only the most rudimentary blocking, often, as in the muddled party scene, to the detriment of the drama. Conductor Maurizio Barbarcini’s unanimated tempi inhibit any tension or forward momentum.
Mescheriakova sings all the right notes but gives a totally generic performance over-reliant on stock operatic gestures. Fatally, she does not obscure the effort involved in singing this difficult part, a basic requirement if the mad scene is to succeed. Nakajima, however, gives glorious voice to Edgardo’s despair, while Braun, in the evening’s best performance, uses his rich, powerful baritone to create a gripping portrait of desperate man driven to evil deeds.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2004-09-30.
Photo: Yasu Nakajima and Marina Mescheriakova. ©2004 Michael Cooper.
2004-09-30
Lucia di Lammermoor