Lucia di Lammermoor – review

Olivia Fuchs's new production of Lucia di Lammermoor for Opera Holland Park is an erratic piece of music theatre that aims high, but tumbles on occasion into confusion. She relocates Donizetti's opera to the pre-Freudian late 19th century and has much to say about perceived sexual motivations, conscious or otherwise, that drive the narrative forward. Enrico (David Stephenson), a sadist in tweeds wielding a riding crop, is morbidly obsessed with his sister's emotional life. During the mad scene, Lucia (Elvira Fatykhova) acts out fantasies of her marriage to Edgardo (Aldo di Toro) and subsequent wedding night with a frankness that genuinely unnerves.

The production also, however, reveals Fuchs's propensity for symbolism, which in this instance proves intrusive. Cages are used throughout as metaphors for sexual control. Enrico's riding crop is but one manifestation of a ubiquitously masculine fascination with instruments of violence. His entourage, meanwhile, are posing, hypocritical decadents. Otherwise there's little sense of social context, and nothing at all to indicate that Lucia's real tragedy is to fall victim to opinionated men on either side of a political divide. There's also a fatally long scene-change-cum-dumb-show in the middle of the second act that sorely tried the audience's patience on opening night.

Musically, though, it's exceptionally fine. The poetry and tension of Stuart Stratford's conducting is admirable, while the singing is consistently refined, precise and expressive. Both Fatykhova and Di Toro sing with a fastidious elegance and accuracy that are all the more remarkable for being unshowy. Stephenson, appropriately enough, is more declamatory and insistent, which suits his characterisation wonderfully well. It's well worth hearing, whatever you think of the staging.