Donizetti's Lucia  di Lammermoor

Opera House, Cape Town,  October 16 - 27, 2010.

Photographs by Stuart Ralph, courtesy of Cape Town Opera

Photographs from Cape Town Opera's production of  Lucia di Lammermoor. Carl Fourie in the Cape Argus (October 20, 2010) was primarily appreciative of the music, writing of  Bronwen Forbay in the title role that "she managed the floral vocal lines with aplomb, and fused these beautifully with Lucia’s deranged state of mind". Given Nkosi as Edgardo was also singled out for his performance, while the orchestral playing and the singing, if not always the acting, of the other principals were praised. However, other aspects of the production were thought "rather anemic" with the staging badly in need of a "bold splash of color".

Peter Tromp (The Next 48 hours, October 22, 2010)  wrote an interesting piece reflecting his experience of it as a novice to opera including his observation that "even during the best theatre productions, I tend to get restless during boring patches, but that was hardly the case during Lucia Di Lammermoor. It was, in a word, exhilarating, not unlike being at a rock concert; a visceral, thrill-a-minute kind of thing".

The Team

Lucia - Bronwen Forbay

Edgardo  – Given Nkosi

Enrico Ashton – Paolo Ruggiero

Raimondo – Xolela Sixaba

Normanno – Tshepo Moagi

Arturo – Mthunzi Mbombela

Alisa – Monika Voysey

Cape Town Opera Chorus

Chorus Masters – Albert Horne & Elizabeth Frandsen

Conductor – Maestro Kamal Khan

Director – Professor Angelo Gobbato

Decor and Costume Design – Peter Cazalet

Lighting Design – Faheem Baardien

 Lucia

Lucia, Enrico and Arturo about to sign

 Lucia and Edgardo

Raimondo and chorus

Alisa and Lucia