Brenda Rae and company in Lucia di Lammermoor at Festival O18. (Photo by Kelly & Massa)

If only Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, a setting of Walter Scott’s gloomy novel in which the heroine is traded like a piece of merchandise in a battle of brutal family politics, felt like an historical curiosity. Alas, we see daily headlines that confirm its relevance.

Sure enough, in recent years a number of opera companies and prominent directors including Katie Mitchell and David Alden have been remounting and rethinking Lucia. Opera Philadelphia joins the group with a production by director Laurent Pelly, which has its first stand as part of O18 before moving on to other houses…

Read the entire review at Parterre Box