Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor

Andrea Bocelli made his debut as Edgardo at Genoa’s Teatro Carlo Felice in 2018, embracing the role’s testing dramatic and psychological challenges. This recording, made during the production’s run, captures the tenor’s wholehearted engagement with Donizetti’s opera, especially so in his compassionate response to Lucia’s mental collapse in the Tomb Scene from Act III, “Tombe degli avi miei,” and the emotional turbulence of the famous sextet from Act II, “Chi mi frena in tal momento.” Decca’s recording engineers present a vibrant, up-close sound picture, as if heard from the front of the stalls, magnifying the dramatic impact of the onstage action. Zuzana Marková revels in the runs and roulades of Donizetti’s writing, retaining her vocal freshness throughout Lucia’s “Mad Scene” to intensify its heartrending pathos and underline the character’s tragic vulnerability.