Final opera bittersweet

One of the reasons that Geatano Donizetti's opera "Lucia di Lammermoor" has been successful throughout the last 170 years -- beyond its star-making soprano role -- is that its music is perhaps the most beautiful ever composed in a bel canto opera.\nDonizetti's opera is a precursor to Verdi and immediately follows Rossini's heyday. It is thoroughly light while incorporating phrases of delicious dramatic pulp and embellishments to challenge any Rossini run. The score itself has many of these ornate incantations and also allows for its performers to add their own -- such was the nature of the composition.\nSaturday evening at the Musical Arts Center, the IU Opera Theater production of Donizetti's opera showcased a rare unified production with five brilliant settings and a lead performance that transcended a scholastic endeavor. But as Donizetti's music leaves a sweet yet disturbing feeling lingering, so did the overall aesthetic from IU Opera Theater's final production of the school year.\nThe preludio marked "maestoso" began tentatively by maestro Imre Pallo and the Symphony Orchestra. It began mysteriously with just timpani and horn, but when the strings arrived, it was as if the orchestra was unsure of itself and the balance suffered -- a condition that unfortunately did not fully alleviate itself as the opera progressed. Tempo choices also fluctuated between perfect and very fast, especially during the Act I duet "Verano a te sull'aure," which sped by before anyone could even enjoy the lingering notes.\nStaged behind a scrim, the atmosphere was brilliantly realized by the set from designer and Professor of Music C. David Higgins. The lighting, designed by staff member Michael Schwandt, used cooler, corporeal colors to highlight the underside of humanity.\nLights washed from the sides and water effects trickled against the rear projections of the Scottish countryside and a larger-than-life moon. The sets looked as though they were all part of an illustrious ruin, from a large hearth and gathering place to a garden with a very ornate fountain to the tombs surrounding Raveneswood castle. Witching woods, creating a thoroughly dark and enchanted atmosphere, surrounded the set throughout the opera.\nThough the use of the scrim seemed to show the haziness and instability of Lucia's mind, it was taken away during the bridal scene -- the scene that finally sends Lucia into the depths of madness. To take away the scrim during that scene minimized the convention, making it seem that it was either not meant for any specific purpose or that it was a mistake to remove it during that scene.\nThe staging of the opera created some effective stage pictures, especially during the mad scene where the chorus and supporting characters became part of the set design and only a solitary spotlight isolated Lucia. But there seemed to be very little actual drama occurring on the stage. And beyond the stage pictures and Lucia's mad scene, the movement seemed too grandiose and stylized.\nFor the most part, the singing of the opera was quite beautiful. The supporting characters were all strong vocally, including senior Andrew Oakden as Lucia's brother Enrico and graduate student Christopher Burchett as Raimondo Bidebent. The difference between the two was that Oakden did not have as much feeling to his singing as Burchett, whose role as a vicar did not allow for much strong emotion. Burchett was able to find those rare moments while Oakden allowed them to wash by.\nGraduate student Alex Vicens was perfectly cast as Lucia's lover Edgardo, looking like a Don Juan tragic lover, but his singing Saturday gave the impression that he was forcing many of the higher and sustained notes. Pushing through the notes rather than letting them float out made him go sharp at times and become out of sync with the orchestra. Though he did this to try and reach more drama with the character, it served to mar Donizetti's tragically haunting death scene in the opera's finale.\n"Lucia di Lammermoor," for all of its wonderful music and supporting roles, is a piece for the soprano playing Lucia. Saturday night, Leah Hunt transcended her status as a doctoral student to become prima donna for the MAC stage. Last seen as Cunegonde in "Candide" -- her only other IU Opera appearance -- Hunt's mastery of the coloratura reached an ultimate zenith during her mad scene in the third act. \nShe sang in a gloriously poignant duet with a piccolo and reached the spectrum of soprano notes. She spun frantically, covered in the blood of her husband and reaching for her lover who had chided her. It is one of the most unforgettable moments in all of opera and Hunt milked it for all it was worth, displaying one of the greatest soprano performances in the last four years.\n"Lucia" for me is a bittersweet opera in all vicinities. As the opera itself is prone to do, this production left me with a bittersweet taste in my mouth.