Lucia di Lammermoor by Gaetano Donizetti Seattle Opera, March 28, 1992 Seattle Opera House (gold cast) We could hardly have selected a better preparation for our coming Met trip to NYC than the exciting singing that we heard last night at Seattle Opera's Lucia di Lammermoor. Both the tenor and soprano were splendid, and my excitement is building for more, more, more. Overall I would rate Sally Wolf's Lucia as the best performance of the evening, although the potential evident in Marcello Giordani's Edgardo was overpowering. It is clear that he has a world-class voice and it's easy to foresee him living up to the exhuberent expectations that have been made for him. The opera opened slowly for me and built steadily. The first act was even a little disappointing. I thought conductor Bruce Ferden let the pace languish badly in this act, and I was especially disappointed in the big soprano aria, Regnava nel silenzo/Quando, rapito in estasi. Wolf's singing was beautiful, full of tone and color even at the highest notes, but I thought the slow pace robbed the piece of much of its power. Later, Giordani blew it on the duet that concludes the act (Qui di sposa eterna/Ah! Verranoate sull'aure) when he reached for a show-off high note and missed pretty badly. His reach for the note had been written about in the reviews; he was badly off-pitch this night, and it hurt. From that point on, there was nothing wrong with the singing by the principals. Sally Wolf was very impressive. Her bio says she is famous for Queen of the Night, and she will make her Met debut in that role next season. It is easy to see why. She has tremendous range and sings even the highest parts effortlessly. My impression was of someone not reaching or straining for a note, but simply reaching out and ringing a bell. The sound was pure, round, sweet. There was a moment in the mad scene, during and just after the flute duet, where she had the auddience completely in her thrall-silent, expectant, respectful. There was not a cough, not a stir as she sang. Giordani also came back strongly in the conclusion, redeeming his faulty high note and more with a potent, commanding final scene. He seemed always able to reach down for a little more-a lingering legato, a more sustained phrase, a longer high note. I had the strong sense of Ferden accommodating Giordani during this segment; the tenor was firmly in command, and deserved to be. Listening to this power and confidence, I am surprised how much less of an impresison he made on me in San Francisco last fall. John Larson tells me that the Seattle Opera press office says Wolf and Giordani have been building with each performance. When John called to attend a silver cast performance just for contrast, the press agent told him to see them gold again instead-it is just too good to miss, he said. It was, indeed, splendid singing. I wish the opera itself had worked better. I was not impressed by the pace or the staging. The construction of the opera itself seemed deficient. Lucia and Edgardo were never developed as lovers, the fulcrum on which all the rest of the story is lifted; Enrico never showed us his evil or self-interest in any way other than the obvious scripted behavior. Raimondo (Kevin Langan) seemed to me wholely inadequate for the part. His bass just didn't balance the power and beauty of the other voices, especially late in the opera when he is called on to move the story forward to conclusion. Others: Luis Girón-May (Enrico) sang well but was stiff and unresponsive onstage; we had seen him as Count di Luna in Il Trovatore here in 1989 and liked him better then. I liked Frank Ream as Arturo (Barb hated him): he sang with a pure, very high voice that was surprisingly powerful given the tone. Shirley Harned as Alisa was unobtrusive. I liked the Seattle Opera Chorus, strong and self-posessed as always. The orchestra, as usual, seemed too loud but played well. The sets seemed a little down-at-the-heels and old fashioned; the whole opera was played behind a dark scrim and I found it too dark, wven given the subject matter. Lucia's bloody nightgown was a bit much, too-as if the director was trying to keep up with the Nightmare on Elm Street genre.