These are beleaguered times for opera in Britain. But this revival of Donizetti’s adaptation of Walter Scott showcases one immense reason why opera will outlast its critics: the singing. After acclaim for Asmik Grigorian’s Cio-Cio-San and Aigul Akhmetshina’s Carmen in recent weeks, Nadine Sierra’s Lucia di Lammermoor completes a Covent Garden spring soprano hat-trick. Fact: a new generation of outstanding sopranos are queuing up to sing at Covent Garden. And in some ways Sierra is the best of them all.
Earlier generations tended to see Donizetti’s 1835 adaptation of Scott’s story of feuding families in the Scottish hills as just a vehicle for the coloratura soprano singing Lucia to show off her vocal agility. Maria Callas’s seriousness and dramatic gifts blew that away in the 1950s. Katie Mitchell’s 2016 production, revived here for the second time, deepens and darkens the work still further for the post-#MeToo era.
