Archived: Lucia di Lammermoor

Concert performance of the opera Lucia di Lammermoor

Conductor: Marcello Mottadelli / Josip Šego

Director: Pier Luigi Pizzi

This universally favorite opera is based on the template of Walter Scott's novel The Bride of Lammermoor, which was adapted into a libretto by Salvatore Cammarana. At the heart of the plot is a quarrel between two famous and influential Scottish families, Ashton and Ravenswood, whose mutual quarrels take place at a time of political turmoil and power struggles. The love of two young people from opposing families triggers a whole series of unfortunate events, eventually ending in the deaths of two lovers. Intrigue, fake letters, duels and rivalry are some of the exciting components of this Donizetti opera that is considered a masterpiece. The romantic setting taken from Scott's novel reinforces the drama and tragedy of the love story, in an opera that exudes the virtuosity of musical and vocal structure that ranked Donizetti among the greatest opera composers of the first half of the nineteenth century. The plot itself, unlike some of Donizetti’s other works, is relatively simple, and the plot takes place in Scotland. Young Lucia Ashton is forced to marry a man she does not love, with she is in love with Edgard Ravenswood, a member of a rival family. The two families quarreled long ago when a poor man from Ravenswood killed his beloved from the Ashton family in a fit of jealousy. Lucia, waiting for a secret meeting with Edgard in the woods, confides in her old nanny who accompanies her, how she fell asleep to a distant relative killed in the woods. Before Edgard leaves for France, the lovers swear an eternal allegiance as they part, and when Lucia's day of marriage to a man she hates approaches a few months later, a series of events ensue that end in tragedy.

MARCELLO MOTTADELLI immediately after completing his studies of organ and composition at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan began his professional career in 1999 as chief conductor of the Symphony Orchestra in Bern and the Stadtheatre there. Since 2001, he has been a regular guest conductor in American opera houses and throughout Europe. From the beginning of the 2018/19 season. he is the director of the Opera of the Croatian National Theater in Zagreb.

JOSIP ŠEGO began his conducting studies at the Academy of Music in Zagreb in the class of Professor Igor Gjadrov, and graduated in 2000 in the class of Professor Vjekoslav Šutej. Since 2000, he has been engaged in the Opera of the Croatian National Theater in Zagreb as an accompanist, and in 2005 he was promoted to conductor. He made his conductor debut with Vincenzo Bellini's 2002 opera Capuleti and Montecchi. In the same year, he took over Mozart's Idomeneo, with which he performed at the Mozart Music Festival in Miskolc (Hungary).

PIER LUIGI PIZZI was born in Milan, where he graduated in architecture and soon began working in theater with Giorgi Strehler, often collaborating with Luca Ronconi as a set designer and costume designer. His first opera direction, Mozart's Don Giovanni, was realized in 1977 in Turin, since when he has directed numerous opera titles in the largest European opera houses. Since 2005 he has been the artistic director of the Sferisterio Opera Festival in Macerata.