singer for all seasons: Milan, Anja Harteros, the Expo, Lucia di Lammermoor( May 31)

Luckily, she was with me, on my phone and Ipad!
Listening to her cd "Von ewiger liebe" made me less sad...
As much as I would have liked to see her interpret nearly all the lieders of this cd at La Scala on the 31st, my meagre consolation came from feeling all the nuances of her voice and listening to this one particularly, 'An ein veilchen' before 'Von ewiger liebe'.
Before I arrived in Milan on the 29th, I knew Frau Harteros had cancelled the recital due on the 31st.
The IDBUS is equipped with freeWifi on board. That's why I got informed by my Munich friend who knew I was going to Milan for this recital.
Of course I felt a bit lost, sorry for this wonderful artist, then thinking my journey was pointless. Then I decided to be pragmatic and try to make the most of it as soon as I had set foot in town.
The bus trip was quite long and tiring but not without charm.
I enjoyed the sceneries crossing the Ligurian coast and the quiet villages overlooking the coast with the dazzling glasshouses reflecting the sun, where flowers, primal fruit and vegetables are grown. The landscape still looks like it was around Nice in my youth.
The Italian coast keeps some wild characters the French Riviera has lost, being completely sold to business of all sorts.
Then there is the long flat green stretch of the rice fields and the imposing rice estate with their red brick towers. Several times I tried to catch what I wanted to keep in mind but the shots were poor as the bus was moving quite fast.
Another message from a Milan's friend arrived with a link to La Scala to either get my money back or invest the money for JDF recital on June the 16th.
I did not decide what to do but thought the best was to go the the Duomo Scala ticket office first thing on the following morning and see what I could do. I knew Lucia di Lammermoor was on, on Sunday at 3pm and that is what kept me going... if I could not listen to Frau Harteros, I would do all I could to get a cheap ticket for the opera. Suddenly the journey became even more interesting!
When I came out of the bus about 7.15pm at Lampugnano international bus station I had to get a ticket for the underground. That was fairly easy and on the whole I did not hesitate too much finding direction from line uno and line duo which took me to the Central Station in a bit more than half an hour. Finding Amadeus Hotel was not too complicated either.

Verranno a te sull’aure,

Saturday morning (after sitting through long hours on the bus), I decided to walk from Central Station to Duomo.
I enjoyed walking down Corso Buenos Aires then discovered some nice shady streets with trams going past, grass growing along the tracks and beautiful clumps of hollyhocks !

It was quite a long walk but easy to follow to arrive at Piazza Duomo and its architecture as fine as embroidery. That morning, around 11am, the tops looked even whiter than what I remembered from my first trip, last September.
The Duomo La Scala Ticket office is easy to find, it is located at the level of the underground station facing the Duomo on the right hand side.
There, after queueing twice, I got my money back and the precious information to get a ticket for Lucia on Sunday. I would have to come back at the Scala ticket Office this time, at 9am Sunday morning to have my name put down on the list for the cheap 'Gods' tickets left.
It was almost 1pm by the time I had done all those enquiries.
I had also my ticket for the Expo (bought on line and printed at home).
Now I could decide to go .... I then bought a return ticket (end of line uno, 5 euros) and got on the train, the same one I took at Lampugnano but this time due to the end of the line at the Expo!

There I knew I would not be very adventurous after all the walking I had done in the morning. Mentally I crossed countries out of my dream list... I did not have to queue at the entrance but the queues were quite long and in very warm sunshine at the Chinese pavillion, for instance, Vietnam as well, Austria, where I could see the forest and the water spray. So I decided to take it easy and tour what was less crowded on the way.
I could not resist the delicious food offered at Eataly and stopped twice. First for my beloved

beignets de courgettes and then for Farineta which is Socca in Nice, a treat from my Grandma every time we went to market together on Cours Saleya... Italy is not so far from us in Provence really...

What was most enjoyable was the deep jump into the Chili, with all sorts of music and sound effects and gorgeous views of brooks, coast, mountains and people working together, with love in all the aspects of life. As a ''grand finale, we could take part in a full screen apple-ballet and explosion which was mesmerising.

I laughed a lot at our French display!

The visit opened by a walk through a beautiful French vegetable garden with alleys with grapes and projections of olive trees and lavender fields, typical Provence atmosphere! The cheese display with the recorded animals cries and bells was funny. But I had the impression it was best understood by French citizens!!! Of course French bread was there in a true Boulangerie....

As planned the Rice cluster interested me a lot. We also grow rice in Camargue and now this rice culture seems problematic.
The display was good with all the stages of the rice culture illustrated, even with old photos, reminding me of 'Riso amaro'.
I came back to the underground station around 7pm and was exhausted with blisters nagging me ....

Now to the heart of the matter: getting as soon as possible to La Scala and queue for a cheap ticket if possible:
I did not make it for nine sharp and was there at nearly 10am. There was no sign of people queueing. I noticed two ladies chatting by the staff entrance door.
It was easy to enquire because they both spoke English : one was the Opera house nurse and the younger one, an assistant to the direction to be, ending a training course at La Scala and knowing all about the House tips. I spent the end of the morning with the young assistant and hope to meet her again perhaps in Provence. She helped me a lot when the lady in charge of the list arrived and we had nice conversation on opera and artists. Of course Frau Harteros 's cancellation was at the center of our talks and we all hoped she could come back on stage soon.
By almost 1pm I got a nice ticket first row center of the first galeria and was happy because it was a sitting spot, with fantastic views of orchestra stage and wings. (I invested the price of the recital ticket and a bit more but it still was quite a fair offer ).

I sat in the shade of the lime trees opposite La Scala and had a rest, watching the endless hords of tourists, mainly Asian tourists who all had photos taken at the foot of Leonardo Statue and his followers, the young artists. I quite liked gazing at the fine statue of young Cesare Da Sesto...looking like Romeo. Then as it was getting nearer to 3pm the Police or Army soldiers in charge of the Security arrived, and then it was time to get in!

Donizetti's Lucia Di Lammermoor is a favourite of mine.
I discovered it on the radio, then cds, then through the

Scala DVD with Mariella Devia offering her belcanto as my reference for this difficult role. I have not been impressed by Anna Netrebko's Lucia but I would have liked to witness what June Anderson did live at Bastille, because I love listening to her renditions.
I knew I would enjoy Diana Damrau's voice as much as I enjoyed Patrizia Ciofi live et Orange and Marseille some years ago. Lucia is young and has to be frail looking with a soft flexible coloratura type of voice and of course if she cannot lose her mind in the trills there is no point in singing this role. I also watched Natalie Dessay on Mezzo tv from the Met and admired her but did not like her singing as much as I did with Mariella Devia, Patrizia Ciofi and June Anderson.
From the very beginning in the House, seeing this empty space with only the decaying bare branches, I felt I was right in the wild romantic atmosphere of Walter Scott's novel. tI was also very impressed to be sitting at La Scala again and for the first time for an opera, a belcanto one and a very fine one!
And indeed Mary Zimmerman has captured the striking elements of the novel throughout the opera. For the first time the ghost of the young woman appeared when Lucia was telling the story to her nurse. Later on, It was possible to follow Lord Ashton going down the battered tower of Wolferag through a hole at the top of the tower. The XIX century costumes were nicely fitting all the characters and flattering the women more. The orchestra was supportive and very fine in all the delicate moments of the love duet between Edgardo and Lucia and the very dramatic mad scene and Edgardo's stabbing at the end. In this opera it is hardly possible to separate music, singing and acting. Donizetti's scores are emotionally stunning for me.
Diana Damrau was fascinating, with her clear tops and very juvenile dramatic acting during the first act, when she was teasing her nurse, making her whirl endlessly to convince her that her passion for Edgardo was safe and also trying to make her share this passion in this fantastic twirl! From where I was sitting it was such a beautiful image... She looked so young and real.... Her singing was so fine too! Of course Edgardo- Vittorio Grigolo had a lot of chemistry with her during the love duet.

Verranno a te sull’aure

Both well suited vocally too, still his tops were less striking then hers. At time I wondered if he did sing the high pitched notes but his rendition was moving and elegant, always. In the love duet I had the impression I stopped hearing him though. Perhaps Diana Damrau does not master the cantabile on the long breath like Mariella Devia does in this role, but she has all the leggere tones in her voice.

Verranno a te sull’aure,

As for the last act I cannot imagine a better one: Lucia -Diana Damrau was trilling with a glass - harmonica and it was incredible: I could see the muscian's hands moving on top of the instrument as well as I was getting the melody from heaven or hell, and Lucia gradually sinking more and more in her madness acting in a way I had never seen before. She made it sound and look almost real. Her singing had no flaw during these heart breaking moments.
I discovered another very fine singer who impressed me a lot: a young tenore di grazia, Juan José De Leon playing Lord Arturo Bucklaw. Gabriele Viviani as Lord Enrico Ashton did sound a bit old fashioned in the first act (acting and singing) then this mpression vanished and his baritone voice became richer to my ears... although he has the real vilain role here. I was not impressed by Raimondo either: Raimondo Bidebent- AlexanderTsimbalyuk did not have the compassionate vibrations I found when Roberto Scandiuzzi played this role at Les chorégies d'Orange.
Chorus and orchestra were magical at times and I was surprised the chorus did not appear at the bows.
It was a very fine matinée at La Scala and so unexpected that I sometimes think it was like a dream... I also met some younger passionate Italian opera goers I will not forget !
Maria Zimmerman in her direction gave back to this production a lot of poetry which belongs to the novel, and for this poetical outlook, it is to be remembered.
Some photos:
Lucia leaves the 'safe' ground and waves:

End of act II:
I loved this end with Lucia departing the world of sufferings just before entering the insane world, or is it the other way round? this particuliar instant reminds me of Werther, when he sings 'on passe de l'autre côté' ...
The beginning: