I love opera and Lucia Di Lammermoor is not quite among my favourites but of the Bel Canto repertoire it is a masterpiece. The story is good and compelling, one of the better stories with Donizetti's music set to it, and the music is magnificent with the highlights being the Sextet and the Mad scene.
This Met production is not a complete disaster, as there are some very good things, but I found myself very disappointed. I'd go as far to say that of the Lucias I've seen this one is my least favourite. That saddens me because the Met are mostly very consistent, with almost all of them ranging from good to truly outstanding.
Lets get the good things out of the way. There is no doubt the music is brilliant, and the orchestra, chorus and conducting do justice to this score wonderfully, with the sound fully complimenting. The costumes and sets are both sumptuous and atmospheric, with Netrebko looking very striking in her Mad scene, and the picture quality is clear and camera work interesting.
I personally didn't mind the updating to the Victorian era, though Netrebko's dress in the first act could have had a more Gothic touch to it, I couldn't help thinking of Little Women or something or other.
The singing is mostly very good. While Mariusz Kwiecien is a scheming, powerful yet somewhat sympathetic Enrico and Raimondo, Normanno and Alice solid, the star for me was Piotr Bezcala as Edgardo. I was disappointed that Rolando Villazon dropped out, he has been growing on me and I have to admit he works really well with Netrebko. However Bezcala does do a wonderful job, he sings beautifully yet is very ardent and impassioned. His final scene is suitably heart-breaking.
While Enrico and Edgardo are great, I personally found Anna Netrebko inconsistent as Lucia. I am not a fan of Netrebko, though I don't hate her and have found her effective in many roles. She looks beautiful, does show evidence of acting skill and does have a good voice with a nice loose and free high register. She also interacts very well with Bezcala and particularly with Kwiecien, even if I don't quite have the feeling I get when listening to Sutherland Pavarotti and Milnes, Ricciarelli Carreras and Nucci or Callas DiStefano and Gobbi.
At other points of the production however, she disappoints. I found her too light-hearted and vivacious in act 1, and felt in general she doesn't convey the psychological troubles that Lucia in the opera has. The Mad scene is well lit, Netrebko looks striking and haunting, and she sings stylishly enough. Against this, some of her gestures are on the over-theatrical side and don't fit with the mood of the scene, and for me some of her high notes were very flat.
I was also very mixed on the staging. Some was effective such as the Ghost of Lucia following Edgardo to the tomb and staircase set in the Mad scene. The Sextet on the other hand was a disaster, singing and conducting were nice and efficient, but the paparazzi busybody photographer was not only distracting but completely unnecessary, and took away from any dramatic tension, pathos or conflict that makes that particular scene so compelling.
All in all, disappointing but considering how well musically it is and on the whole visually too, it could have been much worse than it turned out. 6/10 Bethany Cox