Baltimore Opera Theatre, Inc.

DISTRIBUTION

Artists are subject to change without notice

Time and Place:
Scotland in the late 17th Century

OLGA ORLOVSKAYA (Lucia): The young Russian dramatic coloratura soprano graduated with honors from the Russian Academy of Music. She was a special prize winner of the international completion in Operetta Land for best performance in 2008 in Moscow. Her career highlights have included singing the role of Katerina in LADY MACBETH OF THE MTSENSK by Shostakovich with Novosibirsk State Opera Theater, for which she won a Golden Mask nomination. Others include her roles as Violetta in LA TRAVIATA, Rusalka in RUSALKA by Dvorak, Queen of the Night in DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE and solo concerts in Paris, Dresden, Brussels, Luxemburg and Geneva. Ms. Orlovskaya made her debut in the United States in winter 2006 with THE STANISLAVSKY OPERA of Moscow in the role of Adele in Johann Strauss’s DIE FLEDERMAUS. Ms. Orlovskaya is the founder and artistic director of the quartet The Russian Sopranos, resides in the state of Maryland and is a US citizen. She is making her debut with BALTIMORE OPERA THEATRE this season as Lucia.

IGOR BORKO (Edgardo); Ukrainian tenor Igor Borko made his US debut in 2006 with Teatro Lirico D’Europa as Alfredo in LA TRAVIATA and Rodolfo in LA BOHÈME. He enjoyed a huge success with Baltimore Opera Theatre in March 2009 as the Duke in Verdi’s RIGOLETTO at the Hippodrome Theatre. A prinicpal soloist of the National State Opera in Kiev, Mr. Borko is a laureate of a number of international competitions, including, among others, the Vincenzo Bellini Competition at Ragusa, Italy, and the Francisco Vinas Competition in Barcelona, Spain. He studied at the Tchaikovsky National Academy of Music and attended master classes with Renate Faltin in Germany and Furelli Carmen-Forti at Milan’s La Scala.

Mr. Borko has made guest appearances in the United States, China, France, Japan, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Romania, Hungary and Russia. His repertoire encompasses principal parts in Donizetti’s LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR, Bizet’s LES PÊCHEURS DE PERLES, Puccini’s LA BOHÈME, Verdi’s RIGOLETTO and LA TRAVIATA, Richard Strauss’s DER ROSENKAVALIER, Tchaikovsky’s EUGENE ONEGIN, Gounod’s FAUST, Rimsky-Korsakov’s ALEKO, SNEGUROCHKA and THE TSAR’S BRIDE. Mr. Bork made his debut appearance at the Prague State Opera in 2008, as Edgardo in LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR, reprising the role twice that spring. That summer the tenor performed in the 16th Festival of Italian Operas. This fall he will sing the role of the Duke of Mantua in RIGOLETTO at the Prague State Opera.

PLAMEN DIMITROV (Enrico): Bulgarian baritone, Plamen Dimitrov, has performed various roles with Teatro Lirico D'Europa on tour in the United States during the last five seasons, including Schaunard in LA BOHÈME, Morales in CARMEN and PING in TURANDOT, Sharpless in MADAMA BUTTERFLY, Giorgio Germont in LA TRAVIATA, the title role in RIGOLETTO and Escamillo in CARMEN. He also performs as a principal soloist in Bulgaria with Sofia National Opera and Opera Varna and has been a guest artist in other Eastern and Western European opera companies. Mr. Dimitrov studied at the National Academy of Music in Sofia, Bulgaria and is a laureate of several academic competitions. For five years, he worked in the Musical Theater-Sofia in the part of Charlie in CHARLIE’S AUNT and Cascada in DIE LUSTIGE WITWE.

WILLIAM POWERS (Raimondo): Since making his New York City Opera debut in 1972, Chicagoan William Powers has performed over 100 operatic roles with the major opera companies in the United States, Europe, and South America. While the stylistic range of his portrayals spans the gamut from Renaissance (Monteverdi’s ORFEO for San Francisco ) to Contemporary (Pasatieri’s SEAGULL for Washington, D.C.), Mr. Powers has earned an enviable reputation as a “heavy,” due in large part to the dark, penetrating color of his voice; thus, the portrayal of rogues and villains has dominated his career. His teachers and mentors, George London and Norman Treigle, have also contributed to the dramatic intensity of his delivery, for which Mr. Powers has become well known.

Mr. Powers created many new roles through world premiers or important revivals, most recently singing the villain Meyer Wolfsheim for the premier of Harbison’s THE GREAT GATSBY at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Other new creations have included Penderecki’s PARADISE LOST for Chicago’s Lyric Opera, Herrmann’s WUTHERING HEIGHTS for Portland, Copeland’s HOLY BLOOD AND CRESCENT MOON for Cleveland and Petrassi’s SESTINA D’AUTUNNO for Italy’s Spoleto Festival. Of re-creations, Mr. Powers offered the role of Celio for the 50th anniversary production of Prokofiev’s THE LOVE OF THREE ORANGES for Chicago, Donizetti’s rarely heard BETLY for Strasbourg and the French version of Donizetti’s LA FAVORITE for the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and the Opéra Comique in Paris. His creations also include the Italian version of THE LADY MACBETH OF THE MTZENSK DISTRICT for Spoleto and the American premiere of Handel’s PORO, RE DI INDIE for The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’ Handel Festival.

Mr. Powers’ voice has been widely recorded and heard in hundreds of broadcasts. In 2000, he released a solo CD on the Centaur label, entitled Rogues and Villains. In 2009, he followed with yet another collection of wicked evildoers and miscreants, called The Worst of William Powers, containing dozens of arias from many under-handed characters, including Rossini’s Basilio, Dr. Bartolo, Mustafa and Don Magnifico, Verdi’s Iago from OTELLO, Beethoven’s Pizzaro, Ponchielli’s Alvise and Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov. The various devils Mr. Powers has reincarnated include Gounod’s Mephistopheles, Meyerbeer’s Bertram and Boito’s Mefisto. Villains the celebrated bass has portrayed include Four Villains of Offenbach’s LES CONTES D’HOFFMANN, Reverend Blitch of Floyd’s SUSANNAH, Wagner’s Alberich, Mozart’s Leporello, Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, Gruenberg’s Jones, and the ultimate rascal of them all, Verdi’s Falstaff.

Recent performances have included the Chicago premiere of DER KAISER VON ATLANTIS, and THE TALES OF HOFFMANN (in the controversial Ratner version) for the Chicago Opera Theater. Mr. Powers performed WERTHER of Massenet for the Klangbogen Festival of Vienna, as well as the Basque National Opera of Bilbao, DEAD MAN WALKING for Cincinnati, THE DAMNATION OF FAUST for Chicago’s Grant Park Festival and the Pablo Casal’s Festival of San Juan. He sang in the Opera Gala for the Festival of the Aegean in Athens and Styros, FAUST for Trieste, THE BARBER OF SEVILLE for Charlotte and Buenos Aires, THE MAGIC FLUTE for Bozman, Maryland, FIDELIO for Cedar Rapids and the national tour of Teatro Lirico d'Europa's production of Puccini's TOSCA and RIGOLETTO for Baltimore Opera Theatre.

Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor

In a feud between the Scottish families of Ravenswood and Lammermoor, Enrico (Lord Henry Ashton of Lammermoor) has gained the upper hand over Edgardo (Edgar of Ravenswood), killing his kinsmen and taking over his estates. By the time of the opera’s action, however, Enrico’s fortunes have begun to wane. In political disfavor, he stakes all on uniting his family with that of Arturo (Lord Arthur Bucklaw), whom he means to force his sister, Lucia (Lucy Ashton), to marry.

ACT I. In a ruined park near Lammermoor Castle, Enrico’s retainers prepare to search for a mysterious trespasser. Normanno, captain of the guard, remains behind to greet Enrico, who decries Lucia’s refusal to marry Arturo. When the girl’s elderly tutor, Raimondo, suggests that grief over her mother’s death keeps her from thoughts of love, Normanno reveals that Lucia has been discovered keeping trysts with a hunter who saved her from a raging bull. He suspects the stranger is none other than Edgardo. Enrico rages, and as retainers confirm Normanno’s suspicions, he swears vengeance.

At a fountain near her mother’s tomb, Lucia, fearful of her brother, awaits a rendezvous with Edgardo. She tells her confidante, Alisa, the tale of a maiden’s ghost that haunts the fountain and has warned her of a tragic end to her love for Edgardo. Though Alisa implores her to take care, Lucia cannot restrain her love. On arrival, Edgardo explains he must go to France on a political mission but wishes to reconcile himself with Enrico so he and Lucia may marry. Lucia, knowing her brother will not relent, begs Edgardo to keep their love a secret. Though infuriated at Enrico’s persecution, he agrees. The lovers seal their vows by exchanging rings, then bid each other farewell.

ACT II. In an anteroom of Lammermoor Castle, Enrico plots with Normanno to force Lucia to marry Arturo. As the captain goes off to greet the bridegroom, Lucia enters, distraught but defiant, only to be shown a forged letter, supposedly from Edgardo, proving him pledged to another. Crushed, she longs for death, but Enrico insists on her marrying at once to save the family fortunes. Now Raimondo urges her to consent to the wedding, invoking the memory of her mother and asking her to respect the family’s desperate situation. When she yields, he reminds her there are heavenly rewards for earthly sacrifices.

In the great hall of Lammermoor, as guests hail the union of two important families, Arturo pledges to restore the Ashtons’ prestige. Enrico prepares him for Lucia’s melancholy by pleading her grief over her mother’s death. No sooner has the girl entered and been forced to sign the marriage contract than Edgardo bursts in. Returning earlier than expected, he has learned of the wedding and come to claim his bride. Bloodshed is averted only when Raimondo commands the rivals to put up their swords. Seeing Lucia’s signature on the contract, Edgardo tears his ring from her finger, curses her and rushes from the hall. Hardly comprehending his words, Lucia collapses.

ACT III. Edgardo sits in a chamber at the foot of Wolf’s Crag tower, deep in thought, as a storm rages. Enrico rides there to confront him, and the flames of their enmity flare. They agree to meet at dawn among the tombs of the Ravenswoods to fight a duel.

The continuing wedding festivities are halted when Raimondo enters to announce that Lucia, gone mad, has stabbed and killed Arturo in the bridal chamber. Disheveled, unaware of what she has done, she wanders in, recalling her meetings with Edgardo and imagining herself married to him. When the angry Enrico rushes in, he is silenced by the sight of her pitiful condition. Believing herself in heaven, Lucia falls dying.

Among the tombs of his ancestors, Edgardo, last of the Ravenswoods, laments Lucia’s supposed betrayal and awaits his duel with Enrico, which he hopes will end his own life. Guests leaving Lammermoor Castle tell Edgardo the dying Lucia has called his name. As he is about to rush to her side, Raimondo arrives to tell of her death, and her bier is carried by. Resolving to join Lucia in heaven, Edgardo stabs himself and dies.

Driving Women Mad

by Mary Jane Phillips-Matz

One of the most versatile and popular opera composers of all time, Gaetano Donizetti dominated his field for many years, but his success did not come easily. Born in 1797 into a desperately poor family in the northern Italian city of Bergamo, he was sent to charity schools, where he was quickly identified as promising music student. As a youth, however, he had to defy his parents, who did not want him in the theatre.

Three student operas were written before he turned professional; and when he was twenty one, his first full-scale stage work was produced in Venice, launching a career that lasted nearly thirty years. Later commissions from impresarios and opera houses took him to Naples, Milan, Florence, Paris, and Vienna, among many other cities. In Vienna in 1843, he achieved the highest honor imaginable when the emperor named him the official Court Composer and Master of the Imperial Chapel, a post Mozart had once held. Over the course of his career, Donizetti wrote more than 75 operas and scores of other works: songs for the solo voice and difficult pieces for two or three voices or piano; chamber music, cantatas, hymns, and religious and orchestral works. Donizetti died in 1848.

The Background of Lucia di Lammermoor

The most popular of all Donizetti's operas has always been Lucia di Lammermoor, which he wrote under a commission from a major theatre, the San Carlo Opera in Naples. This opera is based on The Bride of Lammermoor, Sir Walter Scott’s great Romantic novel, the plot of which Scott may have taken from an actual murder case when a bride killed her groom on their wedding night.

The librettist of Lucia was Salvatore Cammarano, a polished Neapolitan poet and playwright who wrote several librettos for Donizetti. Coming from a large clan of theatrical professionals: actors, comedians, writers, and stage managers, Cammarano also wrote texts for Giuseppe Verdi and other composers.

The Opera's World Premiere and Subsequent Popularity

After the premiere of Lucia in 1835, the opera became so wildly successful that the world’s “celebrity” singers wanted to appear in it, and it almost immediately became a showpiece for coloratura sopranos. The busiest theatres scheduled performances of it by the hundreds, and soon Lucia was being produced all over Europe and even in South America and the Caribbean. Having reached London in 1838 and the United States in 1841, it has remained in the world's repertory for more than 170 years. Its success is certainly owed to Donizetti’s genius at bringing characters to vivid life while achieving a perfect balance between voices and orchestra. In a word, Lucia is a seamless, poetic, heartrending Romantic work.

The Hapless Bride and Her Fate

When Donizetti was looking for a source to use for his new opera, he said he wanted to write about “love, violent love, without which operas are cold.” That is what he did in Lucia, which is set in the Lammermoor Hills of Scotland. The action takes place in the turbulent 1680s and 1690s, when several European countries were at war and many Scottish families were torn apart by clan wars. The hero and heroine of the opera are Edgardo of Ravenswood and Lucia Ashton, whose families are mortal enemies. Because Lucia and Edgardo have secretly exchanged rings with each other and taken private vows, they consider themselves husband and wife. Their happiness, however, is destroyed when Lucia’s villainous brother, Enrico Ashton, forces her into an arranged marriage to save their family’s fortunes.

The opera conveys a weighty moral message by showing how brutally Lucia is treated by her brother. At the same time it lays bare the wretched status of women, whose oppression was then fully sanctioned by law. To protect her virginity, a girl or woman could be locked up at home for years, a prisoner of her family’s need to make a “respectable” marriage for her. The moment she married, her condition worsened, for her all her money, her property, and even her children became her husband’s under law, and he could beat her or rape her at will. Divorce was almost impossible, and if she left her husband, she was forced to leave her children with him. It is certainly no exaggeration to say that women and children were no more than mere property for men to dispose of however they wished. In practice, this meant that from childhood on, millions of girls were forced to show respect and abject humility to all adults, speak with low voices, and be “as meek as lambs.” From birth to death, they lived without ever taking a single breath of freedom.

Quite naturally, this repression of every emotion, every hope, and every desire was required for women to live “normally.” Lucia is the absolute personification of the horrors such total repression would cause. Enrico, Lucia’s brother, is desperate to see her married to Lord Bucklaw, and when she resists, he lies to her and shows her forged letters proving that Edgardo is in love with someone else. Close to a total breakdown, she feels chills and fever and is close to fainting, but she bows to Enrico’s relentless pressure and signs the marriage contract with Lord Bucklaw. At that moment, in one of opera's most electrifying scenes, Edgardo bursts in upon the celebration and curses Lucia for betraying their love. After he is driven out, the formal rites go forward, and Lucia is led to her marriage bed. There, driven to madness, she kills her groom and emerges from the bridal chamber drenched in blood. Edgardo takes refuge in the cemetery where his ancestors lie, but people from Ashton's castle tell him she is dying. Hearing the tolling of the bell for the dead, Edgardo kills himself.

It is surely no accident that Lucia di Lammermoor remains Donizetti’s most popular opera, for it so much more than a Romantic tale with a touch of Gothic horror. Instead it is an intimate portrait of a woman driven mad by the repression of her very self.

Gifted Russian Singers lift LUCIA

There were two gifted singers from the Kirov Opera as the star-crossed lovers, soprano Larissa Yudina and tenor Evgeni Akimov. Yudina's voice boasts an unusual coloration, ample and accurate flexibility, a neat trill, and flaming top notes. In the Mad Scene she was both spectacular and touching. Akimov is a real find, the best. He's got a strong, attractive lyric voice and sings and acts with persuasive passion. Bass, Viacheslav Pochapsky made a sonorous and sympathetic priest. As the villain Enrico, American baritone James Bobick strode with malevolent swagger and sang forcefully. The cheering audience was clearly happy.

BOSTON GLOBE – Richard Dyer – Feb. 2006

VOICES TRIUMPH! LUCIA sends opera lovers to Scotland, 1835

Teatro Lirico D'Europa delivered handsomely last night where it really counts; in the voice department. They sure did sing. The lovely, supple voice of Soprano Larissa Yudina suited the role so well delivering Lucia's pearl-like notes with confidence ease, beauty and real style. Tenor Evgeny Akimov as her true love, sang handsomely and with a forceful passion. Baritone James Bobick, as Lucia's greedy brother Enrico, made a strong, positive impression, and Viacheslav Pochapsky filled the role of Raimondo vividly with his black-as night bass. Conductor Topolov led the music with real spirit and a strong understanding of the singers needs.

BOSTON HERALD – T. J. Medrek – Feb. 2006

TOWERING PERFORMANCES ELEVATE LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR SCORING ANOTHER BIG SUCCESS FOR TEATRO LIRICO

Singing the role of Lucia was Larissa Yudina, a lovely coloratura soprano with a set of pipes and manner of punctuated delivery that was perfection in every way. Her Lucia displayed, both vocally and through her gestures, an emotional attachment to the role that, when joined with the manner of her fluid, flawless delivery, cast a spell over the audience that remained unbroken to the very end. Edgardo, was Russian tenor, Evgeni Akimov. This grand singer; this grand voice is what going to opera is all about. When he sings the walls shake and the ceiling lifts, and the audience is simply swept away in the power and grandeur of perfect tone and technique that is virtuosic in its sheer luminescence. I saw this fine singer perform in Teatro's earlier production of "La Boheme" and noted that his performance went "thermonuclear". Nothing has changed. Akimov acts. He moves. He gestures. He emotes feeling. He is the character - and that is what cements a performance and elevates a production, particularly when it is shared by every other performer on stage. Also, doing a superb job last night was Russian basso Viacheslav Pochapsky. Mr. Popchapsky has a solid stage presence and last night delivered a powerful vocal performance with a deep, resonant and remarkably melodic bass that was nothing short of commanding. Cast in the role of Lucia's scheming brother, Enrico, was baritone James Bobick, who displayed fine singing form and a strong, solid voice. The score was rendered well and the orchestra performed just fine under the apt direction of Krassimir Topolov. This production was marked by fine sets and even, moody lighting that played off the backgrounds nicely and gave this production warmth. This is a production worth seeing because of the remarkable singing and a score that is, at times, hypnotic. Towering performances elevate this "Lucia," scoring another big success for Teatro Lirico D'Europa!

OPERAONLINE.US – Paul Walkowski – Feb. 2006

TOWERING PERFORMANCES ELEVATE LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR SCORING ANOTHER BIG SUCCESS FOR TEATRO LIRICO
Lucia di Lammermoor at The Touhill Center

Much of the success of a production of Lucia di Lammermoor is dependent upon the climactic Act 3, in which Lucia breaks down completely into madness. Soprano Larissa Yudina's doomed heroine was tragic and chilling. Yudina's Lucia staggered across the stage in agony after killing her husband, portraying the young woman's madness with passion and honesty. Yudina did an excellent job of portraying Lucia's full range of emotions, from love-struck to furious to coming completely undone. Yudina truly stole Saturday's show. Tenor Igor Borko's Edgardo is strong and competent; his vocal range was impressive and his tone melodic and clear. Baritone James Bobick easily dominated his scenes as Enrico, providing a rich and robust voice to the character. Lucia di Lammermoor's set design is simplistic but serves the tragic production well. The lighting design was excellent, and the costumes beautiful.

THE CURRENT – St. Louis – Kelly Levins-Moore – Jan. 2007