Ludovic Tézier reviews
Verdi (Ludovic Tézier)
Ludovic Tézier (baritone); Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna/Frédéric Chaslin (Sony Classical)
Damrau's beautiful performance of Bellini's I Puritani
This last opera of Bellini’s may not be his greatest work – obviously Norma is that – but it is full of lovely music.
Katie Mitchell directs Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor
Katie Mitchell’s ‘split-screen’ production of Lucia di Lammermoor opened to mixed reviews in 2016: some focusing on the drip of the plumbing in Vicki Mortimer’s scrupulous reconstruction of a Victorian bathroom; some on over-crowding issues in the grand set pieces for chorus and principals; some on the intrusive manifestations of the ghosts of the Lammermuir girl and Lucia’s mother. The staging is over-stuffed but it is not stupid or careless.