The title of a Brecht play I have remembered since college: Die heilige Johanna der Schlachthöfe—Saint Joan of the Stockyards. Well, think of this as Lucia of the Truckstop.

One might expect in the usual order of things that reviewing a new production of a bel canto masterpiece—one which for 186 years has been viewed as a virtuoso steeple chase to judge its soprano heroine—would begin by considering that soprano. This, however, is an unusual case.

With no disrespect to Nadine Sierra, who as Lucia acquits herself honorably if not magically in vocal terms (more on that later), the undisputed cause célèbre here is director Simon Stone…

Click here to read the full post on Parterre Box.