“Agency” is a current buzzword in opera, well-worn but still valid and usually preceded by “female”. Women, abused, controlled, dying, were long assumed to have no free will. A radical rethink, of history in its entirety, and of opera, has put this expectation in the dock. One of the sharpest cross-questioners, scrutinising every hardened attitude, is the British director Katie Mitchell, whose work has been seen (alternative wording: “has divided audiences”) across Europe since the mid-1990s.
Her production of Gaetano Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor (1835), as troublesome as it is unnerving and perceptive, has returned to the Royal Opera House for a second revival. The soprano Nadine Sierra excels in the title role (her fellow American Liv Redpath will give three performances). Sierra alone, leading a uniformly strong ensemble, would be a reason to see this show. Giacomo Sagripanti conducted, with chorus and orchestra on passionate form and a notably lovely solo flute obbligato in the celebrated mad scene.
