Endless success

Donizetti is among the composers who saw glory and success in their lifetime. As a result, between two cities, while stopping off at home, he was snapped up by the Teatro San Carlo in Naples. He was bound by a contract and was obliged, this time, to honour a three-opera commission. He saw in Salvatore Cammarano a young librettist with a fiery nature to perfectly match the urgency of the moment.

Together, they pored over a work by Sir Walter Scott, The Bride of Lammermoor. They took a mere six weeks to compose Lucia di Lammermoor. The public’s enthusiasm was immediate. The composer added a feather to his cap: he had just saved the Theatre. Destiny smiled on him because, three days before the premiere, the death of Bellini made him the sole representative of the operatic art in Italy. This accident lends a surprising intensity to this tragedy, which will be borne by Annick Massis, and, for the first time in Liège, the Spanish tenor Celso Albelo. They make a dazzling duo.

 The Story

17th-century Scotland is marked by inter-clan warring. Edgardo and Lucia are in love, but are members of opposing clans. In addition, the beauty’s brother has promised her to another man. This is an impossible love that will drag her into madness and lead her, with her lover, to certain death.

(Libretto: Salvatore Cammarano after
Sir Walter Scott’s novel, The Bride of Lammermoor)

Cast