LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR – DONIZETTI
Presented on Apr 13, 15, 17, 20 at the Gaiety Theatre Dublin and May 4, 6, 8 at the Opera House Cork as part of the Dublin Grand Opera Society’s Spring Season
Francina Girones – Lucia
Giuseppe Giacomini – Edgardo
Renato Borgato – Enrico
Carlo Micalucci – Raimondo
Patrick Ring – Arturo
Michele Buenza – Normanno
Olive Duncan – Alisa
Albert Rosen / Napoleone Annovazzi[May 4, 6, 8] – Conductor
Sanzio Levratti – Producer
Listen to this production here:
Recorded at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin
THE PRODUCTION WAS ALSO SEEN IN CORK:
It was during the final rehearsals of “Lucia” that chorus members began to take real notice of tenor Giuseppe Giacomini as he sang Edgardo’s melodious music, and their reaction was summed up in the words, star quality. Everyone spoke of his warm vocal timbre and the way he spun long, legato lines. To Tom Carney, the voice was powerful and flexible and lovely to listen to, because of its depth of quality and tonal colour. He felt Donizetti’s music suited the tenor to perfection. Barry Hodkinson thought him simply superb and his ringing top notes very exciting. He believed he would be equally effective singing either Verdi’s or Puccini’s music. To Dympna Carney, the voice projected magnificently and was never forced and he paid much attention to phrasing. She was sure he would make an ideal Edgardo. It was a voice that also deeply impressed both Florrie Draper and Ann Deegan because of its musicality and strength. As a tenor in the chorus, Paddy Brennan was inclined on his own admission to take more than a passing interest in the latest tenor imports. He wondered what they could expect from Signor Giacomini. He remembers that on his way to morning rehearsals at the Gaiety Theatre his car broke down in Dame Street, opposite the Olympia Theatre, leaving him with no option except to push it to one side of the street. He then proceeded to the Gaiety on foot and as he entered by the stage door, where he had a good view of the bare stage, he picked out an individual with a coat slung over his shoulders who was rehearsing the final scene from Lucia. ‘It was an unbelievable sound coming back at me,’ he recalls, ‘and at that moment I forgot about my broken down car and concentrated instead on Signor Giacomini. I realised I was listening to a glorious voice, big and expressive and full of feeling for both words and music.’ Paddy Ring was singing Arturo in the same production and was struck by Giacomini’s voice. ‘It was well developed and would no doubt develop more. He had good musicianship and no problem with intonation or range. I saw a big future for him. He was self-effacing and of quiet disposition and perhaps even shy.’ It was soon evident, however, that the tenor was troubled by poor sight. ‘I think it was a problem with him,’ says Barry Hodkinson. ‘But he was able to get around the stage alright.’ Whether the critics suspected this failing or not is not easy to say. Charles Acton, in the Irish Times, found him ‘a fine Edgardo, with a commanding, convincing voice.’ Mary MacGoris described his voice as ‘of heroic quality, though not perfectly produced.’ I liked the opening paragraph of her review, ‘Lucia went mad in primrose and chiffon on the Gaiety stage last night, and certainly it was better than the usual obviously nylon nightie.’ As a critic, she knew how to inform as well as entertain her readers, which couldn’t be said of all her colleagues of what was really a golden era in grand opera in Ireland.
(Extracted from “Love and Music: The Glorious History of the Dublin Grand Opera Society” by Gus Smith, 1998)
Opera in Ireland 