Opera review: Lucia di Lammermoor

by Steve Smith of of West and Clear

The penultimate performance of Fort Worth Opera’s 2008 Festival — Saturday’s performance of Lucia di Lammermoor at Bass Hall — really captured everything I have come to appreciate about this company. Start with perfect staging, add in established stars, then bring in lots of young talent.

Donizetti’s retelling of Sir Walter Scott’s novel about the worst wedding night ever is plenty dark and moody, thanks to director David Gately. Most of the scenes come up with a spotlight on a main character who appears to be this white presence floating in a sea of darkness. Things don’t get much brighter than that for most of the characters.

The audience is much more fortunate. Elizabeth Futral — an international star and one leading sopranos in opera today, really demonstrated what a talent of her magnitude can accomplish.

Not only was she able showcase her stunning ability over and over again throughout the night as you would expect from a soprano who has performed this same role at the Metropolitan Opera. By the time she slumped to the stage at the end of the Mad Scene in Act III, you know you’ve been watching a major star. But Futral also showed that unique ability to make all of those around her just that much better. In scene after scene, her individual talent was awe-inducing, but her chemistry with her fellow performers really made the story human and real, no small feat with a bunch of kilt-wearing folks singing in Italian.

As with Anthony Dean Griffey in Of Mice and Men and Carter Scott in Turandot, the opportunity to see this level of talent on-stage in Fort Worth is worth the price of admission alone.

But even superstars can do it alone, they need talent around them. And last night, Futral was surrounded by a lot of big, big male voices. As Enrico, Michael Todd Simpson’s baritone showed why we was a 2006 McCammon Competition winner. Simpson stalked the stage with swagger and menace. Bass Derrick Parker as Raimondo was equally powerful.

But the performer who really blew me away last night was Stephen Costello as Edgardo. Watch him above singing Rossini’s Stabat Mater and you’ll know why. This young tenor from Philadelphia is well on the road to being a major star with his rich, penetrating voice. He’s already made his Metropolitan Opera debut and he’s now headed to the Salzburg Festival now to play Cassio in Otello for Riccardo Muti. If you didn’t see him in Lucia, be sure to catch him when he comes back. He’s an amazing talent.

But while Costello certainly earned his standing ovation last night, other young performers deserve their due as well. Alissa Anderson, a young soprano from UNT, held her own in her scenes with Futral. I’ve had a chance to see her perform at several other opera functions and not only does she have power and ability in her voice, she exhibits grace and charm as well. Another young talent, Jonathan Blalock, the Carolina tenor who played Normanno last night, also deserves a mention. It’s impossible not to wish good things for both Anderson and Blalock. They are both so talented, earnest and enthusiastic. Here’s hoping they are both at the beginning of long, successful careers.

It’s one thing to assemble all of this talent, it’s quite another to put it all together. At the end of Act II, when the sextet brings together all of the principals in the chorus, the result was so incredibly beautiful and textured that all you can say is … that’s art.

Fort Worth Opera — bravo!