Lucia di LammermoorNew production

«Love, destruction-laden love, without which opera remains cold»: this was the stuff that Donizetti demanded of material for an opera – and it was what he got in spades from Sir Walter Scott’s novel The Bride of Lammermoor. The fragile Lucia, mourning the death of her mother, has fallen in love with Edgardo, the mortal enemy of her brother Enrico. Edgardo is willing to disregard the longstanding hatred between the two families, but Lucia fears her brother’s hard-heartedness, and begs Edgardo to keep their union secret. Enrico is enraged when he hears of his sister’s love for Edgardo – for Enrico has arranged to marry Lucia off to the rich Arturo Bucklaw, hoping to rescue his own debt-laden finances in the process. With the aid of forged letters, Lucia is convinced of Edgardo’s infidelity, and Enrico unrelentingly pressures her until she agrees to the arranged marriage. But she is ultimately broken by her unrequited love. As if possessed, she stabs Arturo on their wedding night. Her own death becomes Lucia’s only possible escape. And when Edgardo hears her death knell sounding, he in turn takes his own life.

The world premiere of Lucia in 1835 was one of the greatest triumphs the Neapolitan theater has ever experienced and remains a sensation to this day. Its popularity is in part thanks to Lucia’s famous mad scene, one of the most moving operatic scenes of all time, which doubles as a vocal and dramatic tour de forcedisplay for the singer in the title role. Appearing in our new production is American soprano Lisette Oropesa, who has already thrilled audiences as Lucia at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London and at the Teatro Real in Madrid. Piotr Beczała returns to the Opernhaus to play her beloved. Tatjana Gürbaca, well-known in Zurich for her precise character direction, directs for the stage, and Italian conductor Speranza Scappucci appears at the podium of the Philharmonia.