Donizetti Tragedy 'Lucia di Lammermoor' Comes to The Met: Live in HD

Natalie Dessay Returns to Role as Woman Driven to Madness by Forced Marriage

Related Media

Soprano Natalie Dessay is acclaimed for her portrayal of the famous “mad scene” in Donizetti’s tragic opera “Lucia di Lammermoor.”

POTSDAM, NY (03/10/2011)(readMedia)-- Natalie Dessay has returned to the Metropolitan Opera in her triumphant portrayal of the fragile heroine in Gaetano Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor." North Country audiences can take in the tragic masterpiece by viewing the performance on the silver screen through The Met: Live in HD on March 19.

The role of Lucia, an innocent young woman driven to madness, is one of Dessay's most acclaimed portrayals. The coloratura soprano is joined by Joseph Calleja as Lucia's lover Edgardo, and Ludovic Tézier as Enrico, the villainous brother who forces Lucia into an arranged marriage for his own financial gain.

Dessay's 2007 Met role debut as Lucia in Mary Zimmerman's production of the opera earned the soprano excellent reviews that praised her dramatic commitment as well as her vocal performance in the demanding role.

"Lucia di Lammermoor" will screen live at 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 19, with an encore transmission at 1 p.m. on Sunday, March 27. The expected running time is three hours, 40 minutes. The opera will be performed in Italian, with English subtitles.

Sponsored by SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music, the series has introduced pre-opera talks for the remainder of the 2010-11 The Met: Live in HD season.

Crane student Vincent Covatto will speak in advance of each performance, including two discussions before the screening of "Lucia di Lammermoor": One talk will be held at 12:15 p.m. on Friday, March 18 in the Crane Green Room on the SUNY Potsdam campus, and the other will be at 12:30 p.m. directly before the opera in Potsdam's Roxy Theater on Saturday, March 19. To learn more about the pre-opera talks, visit metinhid.craneoperaensemble.com.

Donizetti's opera "Lucia di Lammermoor" portrays Lucy Ashton, who is caught in a feud between her family and the Ravenswoods in Lammermuir Hills in Scotland in the 17th century. Lucia wants to marry her lover, Edgardo Ravenswood, but her brother Enrico wants her to wed Arturo, a powerful lord. Eventually, when she is forced into the marriage and Edgardo finds out, Lucia goes mad and kills her new husband. Her aria after she descends into the party, unaware of what she has done, is famously known as the "mad scene."

In the North Country, SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music and J.S. Cinemas sponsor the 2010-11 season of The Met: Live in HD. Music-lovers and novices alike can watch the staging live from the Metropolitan stage in New York City, where high-definition cameras capture the action and the dramatic music is presented in surround sound, with English subtitles, through The Met: Live in HD.

The Metropolitan Opera's The Met: Live in HD series has won both Peabody and Emmy Awards, and sold more than 2.2 million tickets worldwide during the 2009-10 season. For the upcoming fifth season, The Met: Live in HD will expand to 1,500 theaters, and add Egypt, Portugal and Spain to its network of now 46 participating countries.

Ticket prices for the series are the lowest available in the nation: $18 for an adult, $15 for senior citizens, $12 for students and $9 for youth age 18 and under.

Tickets are available by calling the Community Performance Series Box Office at (315) 267-2277, or visiting the Roxy Theater or Northern Music & Video in downtown Potsdam or the CPS Box Office in the lobby of Sara M. Snell Music Theater. You can also reserve tickets online by visiting www.cpspotsdam.org.

For more information on the 2010-11 The Met: Live in HD season, visit the Metropolitan Opera website at www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/broadcast/hd_events_next.aspx.

To learn more about The Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam, visit www.potsdam.edu/crane.

###

Founded in 1816, and located on the outskirts of the beautiful Adirondack Park, The State University of New York at Potsdam is one of America's first 50 colleges. SUNY Potsdam currently enrolls approximately 4,350 undergraduate and graduate students. Home to the world-renowned Crane School of Music, SUNY Potsdam is known for its handcrafted education, challenging liberal arts and sciences core, excellence in teacher training and leadership in the performing and visual arts.

-www.potsdam.edu-