Lucia di Lammermoor

Donizetti’s operas, and those of his Italian contemporaries, are known today as bel canto (from the Italian for “beautiful singing”), a genre that focused on vocal agility and lyrical grace to express the drama. This approach is nowhere more evident than in Lucia di Lammermoor, whose title heroine pours out her joys and sorrows with some of the repertoire’s most dazzling vocal pyrotechnics—including in the climactic, extended mad scene in Act III. In this performance, broadcast live from the stage during the 2014–15 season, soprano Albina Shagimuratova gives a tour-de-force performance in the title role, headlining a cast that also features tenor Joseph Calleja as Lucia’s forbidden lover, Edgardo, and baritone Luca Salsi as her brother—and Edgardo’s sworn rival—Enrico. Bass Alastair Miles rounds out the principal cast as Lucia’s tutor, the compassionate priest Raimondo, with celebrated Italian maestro Maurizio Benini on the podium.