Free Bloody Lucia!

I want to start off today's post with a huge THANK YOU to Scott R. for hooking me up with tickets for tonight's performance of Lucia di Lammermoor!

Where to begin. Oh I know, how about with the two embarrassing moments. It's ok, only one of them was mine. It was a simple one, really. I thought I recognized this guy outside and started talking to him, and then I realized that no, he wasn't who I thought he was... he didn't seem to mind. I, of course, was embarrassed and ran off to hide at the other side of the building. And here's where embarrassing moment no. 2 takes place. I was walking past the front of the theater. There was just 1 person out there, a fancily-dressed woman, on the phone. Her back was to me. As I approached, she let out this huge whopper of ... well, she passed gas. She immediately spun around with a look of horror on her face to see if anyone was in the vicinity. Hi, it's just me. I didn't look at her and didn't react - just kept going in my own mortification to escape from the case of mistaken identity. So that was her embarrassing moment. Maybe the tables are turning - yesterday I experienced my neighbor's embarrassing moment, today, this. Could it be I've had my quota of embarrassing opera moments? Oh wouldn't that be nice...

Ok so I went in to get the tickets and I didn't seem to be on the list. The Guy in Charge of the comp tickets was holding a wad of them about 2 inches thick though. I'm not sure if he ever found my name, but he scribbled it down and peeled two tickets off the stack... and they were in the 2nd row, off to the side. Then a super-tall person sat right in front of me. For the entire first act he kept moving his head, which meant I had to too, so we moved to the center section for the rest of it.

The opera itself was awesome!! Lisette Oropesa was Lucia. Wow. What a voice - like honey. She didn't quite have that gorgeous timbre that Elizabeth Caballero has, but she was close. In Act 2, when Lucia's fighting with her brother, she really seemed like a young teenager. And the mad scene - WOW. She caressed the notes up and down and all over the scale, made it sound easy. All this while covered in blood of course, lots of it. And I must confess, I liked her Lucia better than Anna Netrebko's. She just seemed to fit the role better.

Everyone in the cast was great. The role of Raimondo, the priest, was sung by a different person than what's printed in the program. That slip of paper fell out... we were treated to someone named Rubin Casas. I don't know when the change was made, but it looked to me like he had rehearsed it with them from the beginning.

Edgardo and Arturo were great too, but I want to especially mention Eric Dubin. When I was reading the cast list yesterday I kept thinking, his name sounds so familiar. Why? Oh yeah, I remember. He was Junius in Rape of Lucretia. Junius is the one who says that all women are whores after his wife is discovered, what was it, getting a massage? Well today he sang Enrico, the mean brother who lies to Lucia about Edgardo and forces her to marry Arturo. He was amazing. I almost want to say he stole the show, but with a part like Lucia it's impossible. Act 2 was his, though. It was an incredibly intense act, the "discussion" between Enrico and Lucia when he does the whole lying-and-convincing thing that sets her off. He was amazing. He scared the crap out of me, the way he was tossing Lucia around like a rag doll.

So I've seen him perform twice, one month apart, from the 2nd row each time, and in each opera the female lead for whom the opera is named kills herself. Different reasons, same result.

I realize now that I absolutely have to go see Abduction. I had budgeted only 1 opera this summer, and while I've seen two, I've paid for none, so my Summer Opera Allowance is still available. I'll probably be a bit blue about the supering thing, but I'll get over it. I've decided that it was probably my own fault I didn't get chosen - in the choice of photos. They wanted a full-body shot, and instead of posing for it specifically, I found a few casual ones I had on hand. I wonder if a purposefully posed shot would have been better. So I don't know if that's the reason or not, but either way, I'll be more professional about the photos I choose to send in the future.