Singers and audiences go mad for Donizetti opera ‘Lucia di Lamermoor’

Soprano Ashley Milanese is joining an extensive legacy of singers as she prepares for opening night of the Sarasota Opera’s new production of Gaetano Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor.”

It’s about a young woman who begins to go mad facing the prospect of a marriage arranged by her brother to save their family’s fortunes. Lucia is in love with a man from a rival family, but she has been promised to a Scottish nobleman. The twists and turns lead her to a climatic “mad scene” that is among the most challenging she has performed.

While the music rests comfortably in her vocal range, Milanese says performing the role is “more like an Olympic feat. Only the people this close to me know how physical of an experience it is. It feels like you’ve been working out for a few hours in a row. I don’t think I’ve done something quite as demanding because of the content.”

Director Mark Freiman, who sang in the chorus of a production “back in the previous century” and played the chaplain Raimondo in a couple of others, describes the leading role as a “tour de force for any soprano. It’s a great showcase. Many great sopranos have done it, from Joan Sutherland to Maria Callas.”

"The bel canto style allows for “lots of ornamentations and you can tailor it to your own strengths,” he said.

Freiman said conductor Jesse Martins has been working with Milanese “in figuring out what to show vocally, but from a dramatic standpoint, from her first entrance, we immediately see she is tormented by dark foreboding thoughts, talking about a well that’s haunted. She’s seen a ghost. Except for a brief moment with a love duet, that’s the only time she’s happy or content in the piece.”

An uncut ‘Lucia’

This is the third Sarasota Opera production that Freiman and Martins have worked on together following “The Magic Flute” in 2019 and “The Daughter of the Regiment” in 2022.

It is a new production of “Lucia” in Sarasota in several ways. It features new sets by Steven C. Kemp, and Martins has restored most of the music that is often cut for time.

“There have been so many cuts to the music and scenes. It’s very rewarding to put together a production that basically has all the music Donizetti wrote,” Martins said. “You can probably count on one hand, maybe four or five, that have done that in the last 100 years. I think that will be exhilarating for the audience, particularly for those who know it.”

The more typical trims allow companies to eliminate one set change and reduce the work of the leading tenor, the role of Sir Edgardo di Ravenswood, the man Lucia loves. But Martins said it also cuts part of the storytelling, including a scene in which Lucia finally agrees to a marriage she doesn’t want.

“You can’t do the whole thing without a strong cast like we have,” Freiman said.

Edgardo is sung by Christopher Oglesby, who sang the role of B.F Pinkerton in last season’s “Madame Butterfly.” Baritone Jean Carlos Rodriguez makes his Sarasota debut as Lucia’s brother, Enrico, and returning favorite, bass Young Bok Kim, sings the role of Raimondo.

Arts Newsletter: Sign up to receive the latest news on the Sarasota area arts scene every Monday

Favorites, Verdi and a rare work: ‘Carmen’ carries on traditions to open new Sarasota Opera season

Preparing for a major leading role

Milanese said when she was cast in the role, she began watching “all the greats. I found out there’s some big shoes to fill here. The mad scene is so iconic, but at the same time, the way Donizetti wrote it, you can always bring your own little thing to it that makes it your version. No two mad scenes are going to be the same.”

Freiman said his background as an opera singer gives him an extra opening into the productions he stages.

“I guess I think of all the roles as mine, I think about performing them. This gives me a chance to be Lucia as I’m working out my staging, imagining myself in her shoes and what I would do on stage,” he said. “That’s kind of a fun thing about being a director: You get to be everybody in the show.”

But there are more practical benefits from his past career.

“I understand the challenges the singers have. I can’t have Ashley on her head while she’s singing the mad scene, though Ashley and this cast are very physical. She’s able to sing lying on the stairs,” he said. “She can collapse and she gets thrown to the floor a few times. She was game doing all those physical challenges.”

‘Lucia di Lamermoor’

By Gaetano Donizetti. Conducted by Jesse Martins, directed by Mark Freiman Lucia. Runs Feb. 24-March 23. Sarasota Opera House, 61 N. Pineapple Ave., Sarasota. Tickets are $32-$165. 941-328-1300; sarasotaopera.org

Follow Jay Handelman on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Contact him at jay.handelman@heraldtribune.com. And please support local journalism by subscribing to the Herald-Tribune.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota Opera presents a full, uncut version of ‘Lucia di Lamermoor’