|
Thursday August 25 2011, 8.00 p.m.
STRESA, CONGRESS HALL
TAKE NOTICE! The concert starts at 8.00 p.m.
G. Donizetti, Lucia di Lammermoor
Enrico
|
|
Lucia
|
|
Edgardo
|
|
Arturo
|
|
Raimondo
|
|
Alisa
|
|
Normanno
|
|
Manipulation of another person’s will, for purely personal purposes, and delusion at being let down are the key elements in this extraordinary opera. The “other person”, of course, is Lucia, who is “manipulated” by Enrico (her brother). Edgardo – from a rival family – is the one who is disappointed at being let down. Lucia promises to be faithful to Edgardo but her brother obliges her to agree to a “marriage of convenience” to a rich nobleman, Arturo. Just as Lucia is signing the marriage contract, Edgardo appears, despairingly singing: “Ah maledetto sia l’istante che di te mi rese amante” (Oh! Cursed be the moment when I started loving you). This is one of the opera’s unforgettable moments. Burdened by guilt and knowing she is no longer free, Lucia slays Arturo on their wedding night. This further guilt brings her such horror that she goes mad and dies of her sorrow. When Edgardo learns what has happened he kills himself in the hope of meeting his beloved Lucia in the afterlife.
This terrible story seems just right for an opera plot, but in actual fact similar things still happen today: undermining an adversary, the powerful overriding the weak, using partial information as an astute means of manipulating reality – there are many ways! So we discover once again that opera is not just an art form to be kept in mothballs, but offers real opportunities for thought and improvement, stimulating us to build a more welcoming, human and dignified society.
Gianandrea Noseda
Read the concert's notes
Stresa Congress Hall is situated in the heart of the town, few meters from the railway station and from all the most important hotels and restaurants.
|
Festival 
