Opera in three acts (1835)
New Production! Artist/director Yannis Kokkos and Riccardo Chailly’s highly anticipated new staging of Donizetti’s potent bel canto masterpiece was originally intended to inaugurate La Scala’s 2020-2021 season, where Lisette Oropesa would have had the honour of becoming the first American soprano to feature in a title role at the opening gala since Maria Callas sung Norma in 1955, but the production was instead delayed to 2023.
Based on a novel by Sir Walter Scott, with a libretto by regular Donizetti collaborator Salvadore Cammarano, the story follows an ongoing feud between the Ashton and Ravenwood clans, two feuding noble families in 16th-century Scotland that has terrible consequences for young lovers Lucia (Oropesa) and Edgardo (Juan Diego Flórez), culminating in a mad third act.
Also featuring in the luxury cast is Boris Pinkhasovich as Lucia's only brother, Enrico, Michele Pertusi as her tutor, Raimondo and Leonardo Cortellazzi as Lord Arturo.