This is a strange performance, oddly unsatisfying. Natalie Dessay is a known quantity as Lucia: sensitive, fragile, using her small but colorful voice and sharp diction to show us poor Lucia’s plight. And indeed, her Mad Scene is marvelous, with the glass harmonica adding just the eerie touch Donizetti had hoped for. Dessay is just as fine in her confrontation with her brother at the start of Act 2, sounding like a wounded creature on the road to ruin. And tenor Piotr Beczala’s Edgardo is ardent and enraged by turns, only occasionally sounding as if he’s pushing a bit too much.
But there the joy ends. Valery Gergiev keeps his Mariinsky Orchestra and Chorus in tip-top shape and they play and sing with verve and absolute accuracy; but they’re lacking warmth, and he drives this opera in a decidedly non-bel canto fashion. The love duet in the first act–the only tranquil moment in the score–comes across as pushed and aggressive, and so the psychotic episodes that follow do not stand out by contrast. The Sextet is well handled, but Karajan’s 1955 reading (with Callas, from Berlin) is just as manic–and its forward propulsion seems natural rather than forced. Furthermore, Vladimir Sulimsky’s Enrico lacks a true Italianate sound, and bass Ilya Bannik’s Raimondo is just weak. This is not for real Lucia fans. Stick to Callas/Karajan and/or Sutherland (either recording).
