Classical and Jazz:Preview - Two "Donnies" to open the ENO new season
Published: 28 January 2010
by SEBASTIAN TAYLOR
TWO “Donnies” open the English National Opera’s new season next month. First is Lucia di Lammermoor, the most dramatic of Donizetti’s operas, which opens at the Coliseum on Thursday in a revival of the award-winning 2008 production by director David Alden.
Highly acclaimed American soprano Anna Christy returns as the child-like bride tricked into marriage by her abusive older brother Edgardo. Her portrayal of Lucia’s decline and her delivery of the famous “mad scene” is among the finest sung by sopranos of her generation.
The Elixir of Love opens on Friday February 12. Although it is the most popular of Donizetti’s operas, it has not been staged by the ENO before. Now it is reaching the Coliseum in a production first directed by Jonathan Miller for the New York City Opera.
Miller has directed more than a dozen operas for the ENO, but this will be his first Donnie. His ENO hits include The Mikado, The Barber of Seville and Rigolletto, the latter re-located to New York in the 1950s.
Now his new Elixir is being relocated from 19th-century rural Italy to smalltown 1950s America. Young Canadian lyric tenor John Tessier is lovesick Nemorino while the quack travelling salesman pedalling love potions is Britain’s brilliant buffo baritone Andrew Shore.