There are two performances left, Thursday evening and Saturday afternoon, to see at the Quebec Opera an excellent lyrical show carried by a singer, Jodie Devos, star of French opera, who has never performed here.
Reconnect in the room with Lucy of Lammermoor allows us to recall once again the pleasure of seeing and hearing an opera at the Grand Théâtre de Québec. The venue has the ideal size and stage-spectator proximity for this art form. It suits Mozart as well as Donizetti and Verdi.
First surprise of the show: the interest and relevance of the French version, chosen by Jean-François Lapointe. Composed in 1839, four years after the Italian original, it was, according to the excellent presentation notes, presented in Quebec only once, in Montreal, in 1896.
Sacrificed lamb
The French version is not a translation of the Italian opera, but a true adaptation. Its main interest is to completely isolate Lucie, the only female character, the toy of shenanigans and power struggles, in a world of men. The character of the confidante Alisa is evacuated in favor of Gilbert, a double agent, both a trusted man of Lucie and her lover Edgar and a deceitful executioner of the dirty works of his brother Henri, who wants to destroy Edgar.
Henri, who embodies evil, is ruined (which we do not see in the scenography, but which we understand from the libretto) and needs to marry Lucie to Arthur. The French version gives Arthur some flesh. He’s a good guy, really in love with Lucie. He suspects that she loves someone else, but he is fooled by Henri’s spiel.
But something else is looming. When we think “ Lucia di Lammermoor ”, we think “madness”. With Lucy, it’s not as clear as that, especially in Nicola Berloffa’s show. The heroine is quite lucid, basically. If she kills Arthur during the wedding night, it is because she understood the manipulation of which she was the victim and she does not want to break her pact with Edgar. It is quite symbolic that Lucie returns from her room, here, with a black cape and a dress without the usual blood stains. Why would she be splashed with the faults of others?
The strict passage of madness seems almost a convention, a moral escape, because there was no question of letting a murderess get away with it so easily on stage at the time. But while this is the essence of Lucia di Lammermoor. Here, especially in this show, we almost don’t believe it.
Jodie Devos embodies this toy of masculine deceit with a striking fragility: the “madness” part, in fact, is managed with fascinating subtlety, instead of becoming an “act”. Everywhere, the singer plays with difficulties with impressive agility.
The other revelation is Yoann Le Lan as Gilbert, a young tenor of rare impact who imposes himself without forcing. His performance is all the more exceptional because it stands out, even though Julien Dran’s Edgar is remarkable for his confidence, poise and brilliance.
Hugo Laporte went from Count of Marriage of Figaro to the big bad in Lucy of Lammermoor. He mobilizes 100% of his resources in very good vocal form to deliver a solid performance, as does Tomislav Lavoie. Emmanuel Hasler experienced a slight vocal plateau in his second scene. It’s not in the same league as Le Lan and Dran and other repertoires suit it better, but it was okay. Excellent attentive and well-balanced direction from Jean-Marie Zeitouni.
There will undoubtedly remain a general overview of opera, an art form which seems to have contracted long-term COVID, especially in North America. Operas like Lucy Or Romeo and Juliet don’t they talk to people anymore? Is the issue of forced marriage too clearly from another century in our societies? Should we then represent on stage societies in which this subject is still hot? But how can we prevent their representatives from feeling stigmatized? And why would we make them wash their dirty laundry on stage while singing Donizetti? Huge puzzle with complex answers.
Christophe Huss was the guest of the Opéra de Québec.