Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor
Donizetti Lucia di Lammermoor
Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor
Overview
Nominated for ICMA Award 2012
Editor's Choice 'The new recording from the Mariinsky brings us into another world ... Dessay's delicately thought-out heroine, [is] well captured in this new Russian set' Gramophone (UK)
Valery Gergiev
Mariinsky Orchestra
£17.49
25 Jul 2011
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Mariinsky label recordings are made available by LSO Live. To complete your order you will be transferred to the London Symphony Orchestra website.
For the label’s fifth opera, Gergiev conducts Donizetti’s masterpiece with a magnificent cast led by Natalie Dessay.
Donizetti’s tragic opera in three acts depicts a family feud set in the Lammermuir hills of Scotland. The opera was premiered on 26 September 1835 at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, with the coloratura soprano Fanny Tacchinardi Persiani, and a revised version in French followed suit in 1839. Inspired by Sir Walter Scott’s novel The Bride of Lammermoor, the central character of Lucia Ashton (Dessay) is in love with Edgardo di Ravenswood, her brother Enrico’s sworn enemy. With his fortune waning, Lord Enrico plots to force Lucia to marry Lord Arturo Bucklaw, in order to guarantee his continued power. Torn between her family and true love, Lucia submits to her brother’s desires but in turn loses her mind. Lucia’s delicate disposition is tested and results in the famous ‘mad scene’ where Lucia kills her new bridegroom Arturo.
Artists
Valery Gergiev conductor
Mariinsky Orchestra and Chorus
Natalie Dessay Lucia
Vladislav Sulimsky Enrico
Piotr Beczala Edgardo
Dmitry Voropaev Arturo
Ilya Bannik Raimondo
Sergei Skorokhodov Normanno
Sascha Reckert Glass Harmonica
Recording Details
James Mallinson producer
Jonathan Stokes recording engineer
Jonathan Stokes & Neil Hutchinson for classic sound ltd, editing & mastering
Recorded in the Mariinsky Concert Hall, St Petersburg, 12—16 September 2010
Compatible with all CD players – SACD layer includes multi-channel 5.1 and stereo mixes.
Booklet notes in Russian, English, French & German
Libretto in Italian with English translation
Sung in Italian
Catalogue code - MAR0512
UPC - 822231851226
Reviews
Nominated for ICMA Award 2012
Editor's Choice 'The new recording from the Mariinsky brings us into another world ... Dessay's delicately thought-out heroine, [is] well captured in this new Russian set'
Gramophone (UK)
***** 'Here is a Lucia to match Callas or Sutherland. Natalie Dessay’s light soprano gives a vivid impression of Lucia’s vulnerable personality. The Mad Scene is enthralling. Piotr Beczala is a gloriously virile Edgardo, and the Italian style of the Russian cast more than acceptable. With Valery Gergiev a surprisingly sensitive conductor, this is a top-rank recording of a marvellous opera' Daily Telegraph (UK)
**** Performance ***** Recording ‘The main attraction is Natalie Dessay as Lucia, a part she can despatch without strain … as post-Maria Callas Lucias go, she is one of the best’
BBC Music Magazine (UK)
‘In the Mariinsky recording we can once again relish Dessay’s extraordinary command of staccatos, her flexibility and that uniquely pearly timbre’ International Record Review (UK)
'... remarkable music-making from the orchestra, coupled with some impassioned singing from the star principals and the chorus ... The highlight of this recording is Dessay’s mad scene, including the original chilling glass harmonica accompaniment, played by Sascha Reckert' Limelight Magazine (Australia)
'Breath-taking Gergiev! One feels the conductor’s hand in the energy that animates the soloists, and even more so in the coherent strength of the ensembles (the chorus is marvellous) … the Russian ‘cast’ is excellent’ Classica (France)
'Natalie Dessay ... doesn’t create drama with the weight or the timbre of her voice, but rather with a superior creative power. The maidenly light colour, the fast vibrato and the eminent focus of her voice build the basis of an interpretation which exposes the fragile and psychologically precarious Lucia from the beginning'
Das Opernglas (Germany)
‘easily worth the price of admission for Natalie Dessay's rendering of the title role. [Dessay] owns a flexible, controlled soprano that seems to have limidess expressive possibilities. Her high notes are thrilling... Gergiev leads stylishly and energetically.The reproduction of the exotic glass harmonica during Lucia's famous "mad scene" is exquisite’ Absolute Sound (USA)
