[Met Performance] CID:209040



Lucia di Lammermoor
Metropolitan Opera House, Thu, January 5, 1967




Lucia di Lammermoor (360)
Gaetano Donizetti | Salvadore Cammarano
Lucia
Gianna D'Angelo

Edgardo
Alfredo Kraus

Enrico
Mario Sereni

Raimondo
Bonaldo Giaiotti

Normanno
Robert Nagy

Alisa
Carlotta Ordassy

Arturo
Dan Marek


Conductor
Richard Bonynge







Review 1:

Review of William Bender

'Lucia' At Met

All Sang Nicely, But?.A Bore

After five performances of "Lucia di Lammermoor," it came time for changing of the guard at the Metropolitan Opera last night. The five top roles were put into new hands. Everybody sang very nicely, and what a bore it all was. The basic problem was that "Lucia" has to do with a lot more than mere "nice singing." Such is the opera's lack of inherent drama and such is the lifelessness of the Met's current production by Margharita Wallmann, that exceptional vocalism is a must. Great singing is what "Lucia" is all about. But there was none to be heard last night.

It may seem ungentlemanly to blame Gianna d'Angelo for not being Joan Sutherland. But what can you do when you have enjoyed the largeness of the Sutherland vocal projections, the dizzying agility of her interpolations, and the pathos of her "Mad Scene"? No. you simply can not ignore such instruction. especially when confronted by a singer who, for all the intelligence and sweetness of her coloratura style, pays mere lip service (no pun intended) to bel canto ornamentation, who colors her mid range hardly at all, and who is weak in dramatic presence.

This was a seasonal bow for Miss d'Angelo, as it was for Mario Sereni as Ashton, Carlotta Ordassy as Alisa, and Bonaldo Giaiotti as Raimondo. Singing his first Edgardo at the Met was Alfredo Kraus. He sang well but his light lyric voice and limited acting ability robbed the role of much of its heroic proportions. On the podium again was Richard Bonynge, who was as considerate and deferential to Miss d'Angelo as he had been to his wife, Miss Sutherland. Overall, it was a conducting job marked by a good rapport between pit and stage. It was also marked again by a certain hardness of orchestral tone - the blending of woodwinds and brass, especially - that seems to characterize his work.



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