The Santa Fe Opera

Skip to main content Skip to search

Lucia di Lammermoor 1979

July 5 - August 22, 1979

Donizetti’s most famous opera…

…brimming with bel canto fireworks. The tragic story of Lucia and Edgardo’s doomed love culminating in the thrilling Mad Scene.

Music By
Gaetano Donizetti
Libretto By
Salvatore Cammarano based on the novel by Sir Walter Scott

Synopsis

Act I

The scene is set in Scotland in the eighteenth century.

Scene I: A forest. While out searching for a trespasser with his men, Enrico learns that his sister Lucia has been meeting secretly with his enemy Edgardo. Their families have long been feuding. Enrico is enraged by the meetings and swears revenge.

Scene 2: A fountain. While waiting for a rendezvous with Edgardo, Lucia tells her lady Alissa of a ghost that haunts the fountain and prophesies a tragic end to the romance between Edgardo and herself. When Edgardo comes, it is with news that a mission is going to take him away to France. He wants to marry Lucia and end the feud between their families to do so, but Lucia begs him to keep their love a secret. He agrees. Enrico has persecuted Edgardo for too long ever to permit him to wed Lucia. Edgardo and Lucia swear their love and separate.

Act II

Scene 1: A study in Lammermoor Castle. Enrico plots to force Lucia to marry Arturo, a marriage Enrico has already committed her to because it will bolster the family’s fortunes, and to force her simultaneously to admit that she loves Edgardo. Enrico has Lucia come to him and shows her a forged letter which leads her to believe that Edgardo has betrayed her. Then he insists she marry Arturo. Lucia’s anguish is almost hysterical.

Scene 2: The great hall of Lammermoor Castle. The marriage is anticipated and Arturo is welcomed by the jubilant people. but Lucia enters for the ceremony in a very different mood, barely able to control herself, barely able to go through with it. Arturo is disturbed. Enrico, almost hysterical with anxiety himself, forces the ceremony to conclusion only instants before Edgardo bursts in to try to stop it. Edgardo is only prevented from a suicidal, single-handed attack on all by the intervention of Lucia’s old tutor. Lucia, suddenly realizing that she was not betrayed by her lover but instead was duped into betraying him, loses her mind.

Act III

Scene 1: The great hall of Lammermoor Castle. The people have resumed celebration of the wedding after Enrico has packed bride and groom off to their bedroom and departed himself in pursuit of Edgardo when the tutor enters with the shocking news that Lucia has murdered Arturo in their bridal bed. Lucia enters insane, raving about Edgardo. After giving full expression to her grief-stricken madness, she collapses.

Scene 2: A cemetery. Edgardo keeps company with the dead while awaiting an ultimate encounter with Enrico. Lucia’s mourners find him and he learns that she died of her madness. Edgardo feels grief and guilt, begs forgiveness from Lucia’s spirit and, hoping to join it, kills himself.

Artists

Ashley Putnam

Ashley Putnam

Soprano

Lucia

Brent Ellis

Brent Ellis

Baritone

Enrico Ashton (July 5 - August 4)

Lenus Carlson

Baritone

Enrico Ashton (August 7 - 22)

Michael Cousins

Tenor

Edgardo

Joseph Frank

Tenor

Arturo

Gwynne Howell headshot

Gwynne Howell

Bass

Raimondo

Marc Krause

Tenor

Normanno (July 5 - August 4)

Bruce Brys

Tenor

Normanno (August 7 - 22)

Annie Lynn Bornstein

Mezzo-soprano

Alissa

Karen Salkind

Mezzo-soprano

Leader of the Dance

Alan Simonsen

Dancer

Leader of the Dance

John Crosby headshot

John Crosby

Conductor

Lotfi Mansouri

Director

Pauline Grant

Choreographer

Michael Yeargan

Scenic Designer

Lawrence King

Scenic Designer

Suzanne Mess

Costume Designer

Craig Miller headshot

Craig Miller

Lighting Designer

George Manahan headshot

George Manahan

Conductor

Chorus Master