Claycomb dominates 'Lucia di Lammermoor'
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Lucia (Laura Claycomb), center, shocks her wedding guests and her confidante Alisa (Lindsay Ammann, right) by appearing with her newly murdered husband's sword, covered in his blood in the Pittsburgh Opera production of "Lucia di Lammermoor."
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The 17th-century Scotland of Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor" is a brutal man's world, but Lucia matches that in a way that makes Tosca's kiss look tame. That undertone of intentionality marked the best part of the Pittsburgh Opera's production which opened Saturday night at the Benedum Center, but other aspects were distracting.
Lucia is often portrayed as a weak figure whose defining moment comes when she "goes crazy" and kills the man her brother forces her to marry. But soprano Laura Claycomb and stage director Doug Scholz-Carlson offered a different view -- perhaps she knew what she was doing. After all, it's not as easy to make the case for temporary insanity when, instead of a dagger thrust, you have Lucia hack the newlywed with a broadsword. Plus, after some delusionary fits in the beginning of the famous mad scene after the murder, Ms. Claycomb's Lucia pretty clearly comes to her senses and is far from apologetic. Instead of just collapsing and vaguely "dying" offstage, this Lucia slits her wrists in front of the wedding party, an act of defiance as much as despair.
This reading was supported by Ms. Claycomb's vocal acting, which evolved from lovestruck when first meeting her real love, Edgardo (David Lomeli) to angry when confronted by her brother Enrico (Bruno Caproni) and vulnerable when first appearing after the killing. She wasn't at full power, suffering from a cold, and that rendered her high notes strained, but the all-important coloratura was there.
Her colleagues didn't show a bit of the same cold said to be going around the cast. Mr. Lomeli showcased a tenor voice with lovely heft to it. Mr. Caproni's singing held the same dark and textured tone that he displayed as Rigoletto here a few years ago. However, he was much too wooden as Edgardo.
- Where: Pittsburgh Opera at Benedum Center, Downtown.
- When: 7 p.m. Tuesday; 8 p.m. Friday; 2 p.m. Sunday.
- Tickets: Start at $10. 412-456-6666 or www.pittsburghopera.org.
Perhaps he was told to do so, because Mr. Scholz-Carlson's directing was markedly stilted. The chorus hardly moved, and even when this made some sense, such as the women being treated like objects in this patriarchal world, it only enervated. The director also had a thing about kneeling, with characters constantly making themselves small on stage without creating any substantial theatrical effect. The scene with the most action was simply goofy. Oh, and the minister Raimondo Bidebent (Denis Sedov), while offering a potent and gravely baritone, was blocked in a distracting way when not singing -- nearly upstaging Lucia in the mad scene.
First Published November 15, 2010 11:34 am
