It is the dramatic, tragic and romantic opera. par excellence, Donizetti’s star work and one of the most performed throughout the history of opera. It premiered in 1835 at the Teatro de San Carlos in Naples, one of the largest in the world, and only five years later it was performed at the most emblematic theater in Zaragoza, the Teatro de San Carlos. Principal. There we would hear the famous aria “Regnava nel silenzio” and other pieces of this popular opera that has been performed throughout the history of the coliseum. And so on until now. It will be on Friday, November 15 at 8 p.m. and on November 17 at 5 p.m. when the public will have the chance to enjoy this 16 years after its last performance at the Principal.
With the Orquesta Reino de Aragón, the Coro Amici Musicae and an exceptional cast headed by soprano Leonor Bonilla as Lucia and tenor Leonardo Sánchez, this romantic opera speaks of madness, ghosts, hatred, death and the ancestral rivalry between two families. “To do Lucia di Lammermoor is a privilege because it has always been one of the opera titles. I wanted to do. For me it’s all about madness and that madness is perfectly conveyed through the performers and their voice. It is an opera for coloratura sopranos, to demonstrate the potential of the voice, but it is very complicated,” said stage director Joan Antón Rechi.
In spite of the dimensions of the coliseum and of what it supposes to raise an opera, the Teatro Principal “is the perfect place to represent it”, explained the director. “It is true that there in the pit the ORA are all a little tight, but the sound is really very good. It is known as “dry sound”, that is, the artists hear themselves worse than how the sound reaches the audience, the opposite happens, for example, in the Auditorium”.
The opera is divided into three acts and an intermission and has a duration of 2.5 hours. At the end, the stage director, promises that “the theater is going to fall down”. “I can assure you that we have brought a work of the highest level, with great artists. From Leonor Bonilla we can expect the best voice to play Lucia, with all the boasts she wants and more. It is true that it imposes because we realize the lyrical trajectory that the theater has had throughout its history, but we have a good work to offer”.
A total of 27 people make up the Amici Musicae choir and 48 artists will perform in the Orquesta Reino de Aragón, ORA. “It is a production with a marked Aragonese DNA. It has been a strenuous process to get here but it is only fair that the Aragonese can enjoy one of the greatest pieces of opera in history,” acknowledged the Director General of Culture of the Government of Aragon, Pedro Olloqui. The aim is for this opera to be performed in other venues in Aragón after its run at the Principal.
Both the Councilor of Culture of the City Council of Zaragoza, Sara Fernández, and the manager of the Patronato de Artes Escénicas, José María Turmo, recognized the magnitude of carrying out an opera of these characteristics. “It has an emotional component to be represented here again, so many years later, that the Principal will once again become the place that hosted one of the greatest operas in history”.