Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848)

Lucia di Lammermoor (Naples, 1835)

The story of Lucia comes from The Bride of Lammermoor, a novel by Sir Walter Scott. It was turned into an Italian opera libretto by Salvadore Cammarano. The convoluted and violent plot is set in Scotland at the end of the 17^th century. Lucy Ashton (Lucia) is in love with Edgar Ravenswood (Edgardo), but their families are sworn enemies, and Lucy’s brother Henry insists that she marry Arthur instead. Henry shows Lucy a forged letter that seems to show that Edgar has been unfaithful to her, and she consents to marry Arthur. Desperate with grief, Lucy stabs her new husband on their wedding night, then appears at the wedding banquet in her nightgown, spattered with blood and singing a coloratura scena with obligato flute (the famous “mad scene”). Lucy dies offstage; Edgar kills himself after singing an aria and cabaletta.

The assigned excerpt comes from the first act – before the blood starts flowing. In the first scene Lucy (with her maid, Alice) waits for Edgar near a well on the deserted grounds of the Lammermoor castle. At this very spot Edgar’s ancestor murdered Lucy’s ancestor and threw her body into the well. Lucy tells Alice that she has recently seen the young girl’s ghost and that this seems like a bad omen. In the scene that follows Edgar will enter to say that he has been called away to France. They exchange rings and consider themselves secretly married from that moment on. They sing a duet to express their undying love, say farewell and Act 1 ends.

The first scene is labeled “recitative and cavatina” in the score, but it is considerably more elaborate than that might suggest. The recitative is preceded by an elaborate and highly romantic harp solo that evokes the Scottish highlands and the wild, deserted landscape. The cavatina proper (“Regnava nel silencio”) is in 3/8 meter and in D minor (key signature notwithstanding). The melody, with its upward leaps of minor 6ths and neighbor notes, is typical of Italian bel canto but also of arrangements of Scottish and Irish songs that were popular in the period. The cavatina narrates a story, and as Lucy tells it, she grows more and more agitated, expressing her emotions with departures from the simple melodic line. Lucy and Alice then discuss Lucy’s relationship with Edgardo, in a combination of rhythmic arioso and recitative. The meter switches to 4/4 and the key to G major, and the orchestra introduces what amounts to a cabaletta (“Quando rapita in estasi”). Here Lucy sings of her love for Edgar in march tempo with increasing coloratura. Yet this is not simply a vocal showpiece: despite the coloratura, the drama keeps moving forward. Alice interrupts to criticize Lucy’s recklessness, setting Lucy off on another declaration of love for Edgar with yet more enthusiastic vocal gymnastics until the end of the aria. The scene as a whole is a good example of how Donizetti combines orchestral atmospherics, pretty tunes, interactions between characters, and vocal display in a way that serves the needs of the drama.