As operatic moments go, the penultimate aria in “Lucia di Lammermoor,” “Il dolce suono,” arguably is among the most anticipated. Known as the "mad scene" it is a hallmark of bel canto style, filled with trills, turns and arpeggios, with room for improvisation, and is a tour de force for sopranos.
Of course, one must wait until Act III to see – and hear – how just mad Lucia becomes.
Fortunately, from the moment Georgia Jarman – who stars in the title role of Atlanta Opera’s season opening production – takes the stage, she does thrilling work, taking the audience on a descending trajectory from the joy of love into the abyss of the insane.
In her Atlanta Opera debut, Jarman is captivating and flirtatious, especially with her lover Edgardo, aptly performed by tenor Jonathan Boyd, also in his first performance with Atlanta Opera. Their connection is led by Jarman’s buoyant manner, echoed by her brilliant soprano. Jarman and Boyd’s duet “Sunna tombe che rinserra” is so lithe, so tender, at its end, one could hear the audience recovering from breathlessness.
Jarman is an effortless coloratura, handling the complex ornamentation in the score by Donizetti with such precision that her notes float with more clarity than the accompanying flute. Jarman’s instrument is flexible in intonation and emotion. She seems to pluck notes out of thin air, then adds luminosity, torture, then resignation.
Her performance demonstrates the vocal equivalent of an emotional roller coaster, especially when her brother Enrico, played menacingly by Stephen Powell, forces Lucia into an arranged marriage with Arturo. The tension between Lucia and the mercurial Enrico is blatant, suggesting perhaps, that mental instability is a family trait.
In this fourth staging of “Lucia” by Atlanta Opera, directed by Tomer Zvulun, the mad scene is especially gruesome. It is set up by an affecting bass solo from Arthur Woodley as Raimondo, the chaplain who explains to wedding guests that Lucia has murdered Arturo.
What follows is grisly. It’s surprisingly bloody. The white light cast upon the bridal suite is unabashed. Arturo’s exsanguinated corpse could be from “The Walking Dead.” But what’s chilling is Jarman’s bipolar performance, with scattered stumbling from stage left to right, tears one second, then Cheshire cat grin and cackling trills, the next. It’s a multidimensional depiction of Lucia's madness, a role that tends to rest on its sorrow.
Adding another effective dimension are the 3-D projections of the grounds, cemetery and rooms in Lammermoor castle designed by Ruppert Bohle. The screens add depth and texture to the sets, along with increased perspective of the stage. The projection that received audible gasps was of a ghost that appeared within a painting. The superb lighting work from Robert Wierzel helped support the story, using imposing shadows when Enrico demands Lucia’s compliance.
The Lammermoor castle sets, however, are uneven. The castle stairs, which usually are so central in other Lucia productions, seem to be an afterthought here. Other small details created some awkward moments, including a tense scene when Edgardo returns to find himself spurned and is surrounded by guards. Guns are drawn, swords unsheathed, yet, the supposedly frightened wedding guests are inexplicably stuck holding their champagne flutes. Some time should be built into the production to clean the stage, as a torn letter from a previous scene was still there, when the wedding guests arrived.
In the mad scene, after what appears to be an absolute slaughter of Arturo, the blood spatter reaches the ceiling of the wedding suite, but only the very bottom of Lucia's dress. This will appear inconsistent to anyone who has seen an episode of “CSI.”
While the cast received good support from the orchestra under the direction of Arthur Fagen, there were a few moments when the chorus was suffocated. However, it is a minor quibble with Jarman as the centerpoint, her agile soprano soaring above the production with ease.
Opera review
Atlanta Opera's
"Lucia di Lammermoor."
A-
7:30 tonight, 8 p.m. Friday , 3 p.m. Nov. 20. $20-$120. Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, 2800 Cobb Galleria Parkway, Atlanta. 1-800-356-7372; www.atlantaopera.org.
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