LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR

Soprano Nadine Sierra and tenor Javier Camarena star in director Simon Stone’s dynamic staging of the thrilling bel canto drama

The Metropolitan Opera’s audacious new production of Donizetti’s LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR premiered in 2021/2022. In his company debut, Australian film, theater, and opera director Simon Stone moves the action of Donizetti’s masterpiece from 18th-century Scotland to a present-day town in the American Rust Belt. The innovative staging features the Met’s rotating turntable in nearly constant motion, creating a cinematic fluidity between scenes. A screen that stretches the width of the proscenium is also placed above the stage, featuring both live and pre-recorded video sequences that delve into the characters’ thoughts and emotions. 

Two of today’s most in-demand bel canto singers star in this electrifying production: soprano Nadine Sierra is the title heroine, and tenor Javier Camarena is her secret lover, Edgardo. Conductor Riccardo Frizza leads a cast that also features baritone Artur Ruciński as Lucia’s controlling brother, Enrico, and bass Matthew Rose as Raimondo.

“The show is a feat of technical wizardry … Here, the singers, especially the two splendid leads, really seem to be singing for their lives … With [Ms. Sierra’s] crystalline soprano, bright, fluid coloratura and fearless ornamentation, she comes vividly alive … Mr. Camarena, a thrilling bel canto tenor, makes Edgardo sympathetic as well as amorous and hotheaded.” - The Wall Street Journal

“Stone’s intricately deglamorized Lucia was never boring. Sierra clearly inspired the director: her movie star looks and quiet charisma were compulsively watchable … luminous.” - Observer