Soprano takes Madison Opera to limit with notorious "Mad Scene"
How does a perfectly sane person -- if an opera singer can said to be perfectly sane -- portray insanity?
That's the challenge that faces soprano Luz del Alba and the entire Madison Opera as it tackles its first-time production of Gaetano Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor" this weekend at Overture Hall.
"Lucia," based on the 1819 Gothic romance by Sir Walter Scott, contains one of the most extreme and famously show-stopping moments in all of opera: the Mad Scene, during which Lucia goes berserk on her wedding night and stabs to death the husband she has been forced to marry.
"It's Donizetti's greatest work," said Madison Opera's general director Allan Naplan, who puts it on par with Bellini's "Norma" as the best example of the "bel canto" (beautiful singing) style. "What's so special is the display of vocal agility. It shows the acrobatics of singing in a refined way while it is just as dramatic and passionate as later operas."
The Uruguayan-born del Alba, who has performed the role in Italy and elsewhere, said she uses her entire body -- even her eyes -- to convey Lucia's descent into madness to the audience, her quick movements and gestures indicating that something has gone terribly wrong.
And, of course, there's her voice.
"The singing requires an impressive range," del Alba added. "You get convinced that her world is out of this world. There are no words she sings. You don't need words to express the deepest feelings that are more universal.
"You are singing at the limits of the human voice," she explained. "Irregularity is what does it. The line of sanity has to get broken. In insanity, you don't have a connection. You don't have a whole line, just pieces of a line."
But while she has to convey the uncontrollable depths that Lucia has sunk to, del Alba said the soprano must remain perfectly cool and controlled as a performer.
"The line between madness and sanity is so thin," del Alba said. "I have to maintain my own balance while conveying madness. I have to be really focused and not let myself go with the feelings. You have to be two persons in one -- the person who is singing the role and Lucia."
For New York City-based stage director Mike Scarola, for whom this is his third "Lucia," depicting Lucia's madness is a simpler and messier job.
"I use lots of blood," Scarola said. "It's very important that we understand the realism of what has happened. She has just come out of her bridal chamber having cut this man to pieces. We have to convey that a crime has happened.
"The blood is all over her night gown, her face and the knife," he added. "It has to be a shocking moment, not only for the audience but also for the wedding guests on stage who are just learning about it."
But for the scene to have the maximum emotional impact, it can't just arise out of nowhere. Her state of mind is telegraphed to the audience throughout the opera, both in del Alba's anxious performance and in Donzini's cohesive score.
Guest orchestra conductor John Keenan, who is making his Madison debut with his first "Lucia," noted how Donizetti used the glass harmonica in his first version of the score to mirror her state of mind.
"It's a very otherworldly, eerie-sounding instrument." Keenan said. "But he realized it wouldn't be practical. So he arranged it for solo flute, which in its own way sounds like it comes from another world. The flute takes on her psychological state and becomes fragmentary, like her madness."
Donizetti also brings back music from other scenes related to characters who aren't present during the mad scene.
"It's like musical hallucinations for her," Keenan said.
Similarly, Scarola uses echoes of earlier movements in staging the mad scene.
"I think you have to apply the way Donizetti used the music to the staging," he said. "If you just listen to how Donizetti sets the text and libretto, its all there in the music and words. It's one of the easiest parts of the opera to direct because we have already seen it.
"When we rehearse, we do the rest of Lucia's part before we get to the mad scene so that the singer will have a vocabulary to draw on. Then we skew it just a little bit. It needs to be very organic."
But when all the pieces come together, Keenan said, "It's fun to do. When you get a singer who doesn't use the mad scene just as a vehicle to show off high notes and agility, but to show what the composer wrote, you end up with a penetrating and convincing portrayal.
"It's more than pyrotechnics," he said. "It is a mind not being able to deal with emotions."
Michelle Stocker
Three people who will create the famous "Mad Scene" in Donizetti's opera "Lucia di Lammermoor" Friday and Sunday are (from left) director Mike Scarola, soprano Luz del Alba and conductor John Keenan.
