English National Opera revives Lucia di Lammermoor in chilling style

By Mark Valencia, 26 October 2018

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“Donizetti’s tragedy scrubs up as brightly as any gorefest could hope to do.”

Reviewed at The London Coliseum, London on 25 October 2018

Donizetti, Lucia di Lammermoor

English National Opera

Stuart Stratford, Conductor

David Alden, Director

Charles Edwards, Set Designer

Brigitte Reiffenstuel, Costume Designer

Lester Lynch, Enrico

Sarah Tynan, Lucia

Eleazar Rodriguez, Edgardo

Clive Bayley, Raimondo

Michael Colvin, Arturo

Sarah Pring, Alisa

Elgan Llŷr Thomas, Normanno

English National Opera Chorus

English National Opera Orchestra

Adam Silverman, Lighting Designer

ENO’s Mahagonny: biting, bleak, brilliantly executed satire

David Karlin, 16th February

Never has Brecht and Weill’s satire on the inhumanity of man to man been render with such utter darkness; Simon O’Neill heads up a superb cast.

*****

Taken for a ride: an energetic revival of Così fan tutte at ENO

Dominic Lowe, 6th February

English National Opera's revival of Phelim McDermott’s popular production is a blend of spectacle with some first-class singing, with Lucy Crowe emphasising her Mozartian credentials.

****1

Cocteau-esque camp: Alden’s Partenope returns to ENO

Mark Valencia, 20th November

Christopher Alden’s Olivier Award-winning production of Handel’s Partenope returns to the Coliseum, but it's the singing that earns the plaudits.

****1

Dead Man Walking at English National Opera: a superb execution

David Karlin, 1st November

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*****

Comedy falls flat in ENO's season opening Cinderella

Mark Valencia, 27th September

Julia Burbach and her designer, Herbert Murauer, are defeated by the wide canyons of the Coliseum stage in their modern-dress Cinderella.

**111

ENO gives Thea Musgrave's Mary, Queen of Scots a worthy performance

Nick Boston, 15th February

Musgrave's powerful depiction of a powerful woman at the mercy of male manipulation receives a strong staging from at ENO.

****1

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Mark Valencia

Mark has worked in arts journalism for four decades, both as a writer and as a French-English translator. Nowadays he focuses his energies on reviewing opera and music. Mark also writes for Opera magazine and for Musical America as a correspondent for Europe and the UK.