Lucia di Lammermoor at ROH

[Flosshilde]

Katie Mitchell told the audience they could either close their eyes

Didn't Bernard Shaw say that the best way of experiencing Wganer in the theatre was to take a box & sit with your back to the stage?

[underthecountertenor]

Didn't Bernard Shaw say that the best way of experiencing Wganer in the theatre was to take a box & sit with your back to the stage?

ROH could make innovative use of its surtitles at Lucia. I'm thinking of a flashing warning along the lines of 'DON PAPER BAGS OR REGIEMASKS (TM) NOW!'

Which reminds me: does anyone remember when Richard Jones was the enfant terrible, who was booed for his ROH Ring in which, amongst other things, Gwyneth Jones as Brunnhilde wore a paper bag on her head? Now his Il Trittico and Boris Godunov are both celebrated as models of opera production. Autre temps.....

[Flosshilde]

Goodness, was Dame Gwyneth still singing Brunhilde in 1994?

(Coincidentally, I'm listening to the recording of Die Walkure Act 1, Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Bruno Walter, with Lotte Lehman & Lauritz Melchior. My dears, the vibrato! Caliban would be having a fit of the vapours)

[underthecountertenor]

Goodness, was Dame Gwyneth still singing Brunhilde in 1994?

(Coincidentally, I'm listening to the recording of Die Walkure Act 1, Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Bruno Walter, with Lotte Lehman & Lauritz Melchior. My dears, the vibrato! Caliban would be having a fit of the vapours)

It's odd. I've done a search which suggests that Richard Jones's Brunnhilde in 1994 was Deborah Polaski. Yet I distinctly remember Dame Gwyneth in a pair of leather trousers and a brown paper bag (and yard-wide vibrato, to be honest). Perhaps it was double-cast, or she was a stand-in? Or perhaps I am misremembering the whole thing. Meanwhile, that Walter Walküre sounds absolutely mouth-watering, my dear.

[Belgrove]

It's odd. I've done a search which suggests that Richard Jones's Brunnhilde in 1994 was Deborah Polaski...

I attended the first night of each of these. On consulting the programmes, the first two were on consecutive evenings in October 1994, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung in April and October 1995 respectively, and Deborah Polaski was Brunnhilde throughout. I remember the booing made R4 news the following morning! The cycle was performed in festival conditions in October/November 1996 with Polaski and Anne Evans as Brunnhilde (replaced by Carla Pohl in Siegfried). It's still the most exciting and best performed Ring I've seen. Looking forward to Opera North's cycle in June.

[underthecountertenor]

I attended the first night of each of these. On consulting the programmes, the first two were on consecutive evenings in October 1994, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung in April and October 1995 respectively, and Deborah Polaski was Brunnhilde throughout. I remember the booing made R4 news the following morning! The cycle was performed in festival conditions in October/November 1996 with Polaski and Anne Evans as Brunnhilde (replaced by Carla Pohl in Siegfried). It's still the most exciting and best performed Ring I've seen. Looking forward to Opera North's cycle in June.

Thanks, Belgrove. False memory syndrome at its worst on my part then. And how stupid of me to lose the programmes.

[Flosshilde]

I guess everybody knows by now that it's Diana Damrau. An interesting interview with her on 'Front Row' tonight, discusing the production, which includes the on-stage murder of Lucia's husband.

(edit: Looking back through the thread I see that everybody knew way back on the 6th of March. Ooops!)

[Richard Tarleton]

I attended the first night of each of these. On consulting the programmes, the first two were on consecutive evenings in October 1994, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung in April and October 1995 respectively, and Deborah Polaski was Brunnhilde throughout. I remember the booing made R4 news the following morning! The cycle was performed in festival conditions in October/November 1996 with Polaski and Anne Evans as Brunnhilde (replaced by Carla Pohl in Siegfried). It's still the most exciting and best performed Ring I've seen.

Belgrove, Anne Evans was Brunnhilde in Siegfried on 4 April 1995. Deborah Polaski was indeed Brunnhilde in G'dammerung - I think Anne Evans was singing in San Francisco when that production launched. I too attended the "Midland Bank Proms" Ring in the ROH in 1996 - I went on Anne Evans nights. She was taken ill after Act 2 of Walkure on 25.10.96, Jeremy Isaacs came on and made a witty speech about how Wagner had luckily given us 9 Valkyries, and Penelope Chalmers was promoted from Gerhilde to Brunnhilde for Act 3. Anne Evans was back to full health for her Gotterdammerung on 2 November.

Those were only my first and second complete live Rings, I wasn't sold on the production but forgave everything for the dream cast, 2007 and 2012 distinctly patchy by comparison!

[David-G]

ROH could make innovative use of its surtitles at Lucia. I'm thinking of a flashing warning along the lines of 'DON PAPER BAGS OR REGIEMASKS (TM) NOW!'

I'm afraid I have only just seen this. I love it!

Which reminds me: does anyone remember when Richard Jones was the enfant terrible, who was booed for his ROH Ring in which, amongst other things, Gwyneth Jones as Brunnhilde wore a paper bag on her head? Now his Il Trittico and Boris Godunov are both celebrated as models of opera production. Autre temps.....

I certainly do remember. I hadn't thought of Regiemasks then. But you are right. Brunnhilde started the idea.

I am imminently expecting a call from a friend who attended the first night of Lucia, so I am looking forward to a first-hand report. So I shall discover whether my Regiemask will be required. (Though of course, not on my first visit.)

Re your observations on Jones - Michieletto went from catastrophe in Tell to triumph in Cav&Pag.

[Prommer]

Well, a wonderfully dismissive review by Rupert Christiansen: "Too leaden even for the hecklers"...!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opera/what-to-see/lucia-di-lammermoor-royal-opera-house-verdict-too-leaden-even-fo/

Haven't seen/heard it, so what do I know if this is fair?

But love the (deliberately?) ambiguous sentence: "Stroppy, duplicitous, and sexually aggressive, Mitchell makes Lucia a curiously modern figure..."

As anybody who knows their gwammer would realise, this could apply the three epithets as well to Mitchell as to Lucia.

Naughty, Rupert...

[Stanfordian]

Well, a wonderfully dismissive review by Rupert Christiansen: "Too leaden even for the hecklers"...!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opera/what-to-see/lucia-di-lammermoor-royal-opera-house-verdict-too-leaden-even-fo/

Haven't seen/heard it, so what do I know if this is fair?

But love the (deliberately?) ambiguous sentence: "Stroppy, duplicitous, and sexually aggressive, Mitchell makes Lucia a curiously modern figure..."

As anybody who knows their gwammer would realise, this could apply the three epithets as well to Mitchell as to Lucia.

Naughty, Rupert...

This controversy will add to the audiance numbers.

[Flosshilde]

But love the (deliberately?) ambiguous sentence: "Stroppy, duplicitous, and sexually aggressive, Mitchell makes Lucia a curiously modern figure..."

As anybody who knows their gwammer would realise, this could apply the three epithets as well to Mitchell as to Lucia.

Naughty, Rupert...

But how well does Rupert know Ms Mitchell, to know that she is 'sexually aggressive', or even 'duplicitous'? It would have to be pretty well

His comment that Lucia "is desperately trying to abort Edgardo’s baby" doesn't agree with Damrau's statement during yesterday's Front Row interview that Lucia has a miscarriage (& presumably she would know, being involved in the production & working with the director).

[Flosshilde]

A rather more favourable (but only 3 star) review in the Guardian

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/apr/08/lucia-di-lammermoor-review-fussy-but-an-unforgettable-finale

Tim (Ashley) thinks that Diana Damrau's mad scene was good - perhaps he doesn't belong to the 'nobody's as good as Joan was' school that Rupert subscribes too?

In the comments below the review someone wonders how it will be 'filmed' for cinema transmission - a very valid point given the split stage. Too many close-ups on the singers will cut out the action on the other section of the stage, & vice-versa, ruining the intentions of the designer & director. (Some here might think that's a good thing.)

[Prommer]

But how well does Rupert know Ms Mitchell, to know that she is 'sexually aggressive', or even 'duplicitous'? It would have to be pretty well

His comment that Lucia "is desperately trying to abort Edgardo’s baby" doesn't agree with Damrau's statement during yesterday's Front Row interview that Lucia has a miscarriage (& presumably she would know, being involved in the production & working with the director).

Most reviews I have seen mention a miscarriage, not an abortion, as a contributory/primary reason for Lucia's madness: it is not because she murdered Arturo. She has conceived a baby via Edgardo.

[Lento]

Well, a wonderfully dismissive review by Rupert Christiansen: "Too leaden even for the hecklers"...!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opera/what-to-see/lucia-di-lammermoor-royal-opera-house-verdict-too-leaden-even-fo/

Haven't seen/heard it, so what do I know if this is fair?

He makes it sound a terrible bore, doesn't he? "A depressing, rather unpleasant evening...clodhopping" etc: and no plaudits for Damrau either. I won't be going. Perhaps it will be televised so we can judge for ourselves?

Further RC article "Opera must bring down the curtain on gimmickry and gore"

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opera/what-to-see/opera-must-bring-down-the-curtain-on-gimmickry-and-gore/