Festival Opera's Lucia di Lammermoor
August 16, 2010
* Notes *
Festival Opera's second production this season was Lucia di Lammermoor, which closed yesterday. The orchestra sounded robust under Michael Morgan, though the brass was out of tune at times.
Overall the singing was very good. "Chi mi frena in tal momento," featuring Angela Cadelago (Lucia), Thomas Glenn (Arturo), Brian Leerhuber (Enrico), Kirk Eichelberger (Raimondo), Michael Foreman (Arturo), and Patrice Houston (Alisa), was beautiful and moving. Cadelago blended nicely with the other singers here, she could be heard, but did not sound shrill. At other times she did not impress me as much, her voice is very piercing. Thomas Glenn's voice has taken on more heft, he sounded quite lovely.
The production, directed by Mark Foehringer, was inoffensive. The aesthetics of the set design did remind one of Design Toscano. The contrast of this with the costumes, which looked straight out of a Van Dyck painting, was slightly jarring. The acting throughout made sense, and everyone looked appropriate for their roles.
* Tattling *
Due to rather poor planning on my part, I was about 10 minutes late to Friday's performance. It was the second time I was unintentionally late for an opera this season (out of 65 opera performances).
There was some whispering from the audience, but nothing that could not be easily ignored.